Humanitarian assistance to children, adolescents and their families, one of the few remaining lifelines for children and adolescents in Haiti, “is a ‘cap’ that prevents the country from entering a spiral of social unrest , insecurity, instability and more poverty,” said UNICEF director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Garry Conille, during a visit to the country this week.
The number of Haitian minors in need of humanitarian assistance has increased by “half a million” in the last two years as the increase in armed violence, the cholera outbreak, food insecurity and inflation have restricted their access to basic services, according to Unicef.
“This is one of the most difficult times to be a child or adolescent in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake, and the situation is getting worse by the day,” Conille said.
And he added that “with limited access to clean water, affordable food, basic health care and protection, children, adolescents and their families are reaching a critical point.”
“Without urgent additional support, their humanitarian situation is likely to deteriorate further in the coming months,” he warned.
Unicef warned that the crisis in Haiti is affecting the protection and education of minors, since most of the schools were closed for 7 months in 2022 and began to reopen last October and that around 1.2 million minors are threatened by violence in Port-au-Prince.
Like the cholera outbreak, which has claimed more than 500 deaths since it was declared last October, it is also harming infants as children under 10 account for one in three confirmed cases, according to the UN agency. .
“Regardless of what may divide Haitians, the future of our children and adolescents should unite us all. Entrepreneurs, civil servants, artists, teachers, professors, nurses and religious leaders can be part of a positive domino effect throughout Haiti by investing in children,” Conille pointed out.
Unicef called on the international community to “urgently” increase funding for the humanitarian response in Haiti.
Haiti has been immersed in crisis and violence for years, a situation that worsened after the assassination in July 2021 of then-President Jovenel Moïse by alleged mercenaries, most of them Colombians, who broke into his private residence.
Last October, the Government officially requested the dispatch of a foreign force, to which the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, proposed establishing a “rapid action force” made up of soldiers from one or several countries and not under the flag of United Nations, an initiative that has not yet materialized.