Hundreds of residents have been killed and thousands of others forced from  their homes amid a surge in violence fueled by heavily armed gangs in  Haiti capital city  Port-au-Prince (Credit: news.un.org)

By Gary Raynaldo     –  DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED  NATIONS  –   NEW  YORK –  Haiti has descended into a nightmare of violence  with a deadly outbreak of cholera as gangsters wreak havoc in the Caribbean nation.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday again called for an international force to end the hellish situation in Haiti. A group of violent gangs has blocked the Carribean nation’s main fuel terminal, Varreux  since September, causing shortages of basic supplies like water and food. Steep hikes in fuel prices have sparked protests across Haiti.  Hundreds of residents have been killed and thousands of others forced by their homes by the violence.  The  Secretary-General addressed the dire situation in Haiti during a press conference with reporters at UN world headquarters in New York. 

“Where there is no fuel, there is no water. And we have an outbreak of cholera, and you know that the treatment for cholera, the most important treatment is hydration, and there is no water available in the city. So it’s an absolutely nightmarish situation for the population of Haiti, especially Port-au-Prince.  That is the reason why twice I referred in informal meetings to the Security Council and formally through a report, a letter I presented, that I believe that we need not only to strengthen the police, strengthening it with training, with equipment, with a number of other measures, but that, in the present circumstances, we need an armed action to release the port and to allow for a humanitarian corridor to be established”.  

-UN Secretary-General António Guterres

UN Secretary-General António Guterres (UN Photo / Cia Pak) 

The UN chief explained that any type of armed action should be done in support of the Haitian police “and I am talking of something to be done based on strict humanitarian criteria, independent of the political dimensions of the problem that need to be solved by the Haitians themselves.”

Political solution ‘no longer sufficient’ to address current crisis in Haiti:   UN Special Representative

United Nations  Security Council Meets on Question Concerning Haiti as Helen La Lime, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, on wide video screen, briefs the Security Council members at UN world headquarters in New York Oct. 17, 2022 (UN Photo / Rick Bajornas)

The U.N. Security Council met in an urgent session on Monday to address the gang violence that has rocked Haiti. A political solution in Haiti continues to be elusive, and on its own is no longer sufficient to address the crisis and save thousands of lives that otherwise will be lost, the UN Special Representative in the country warned the Security Council on Monday.  Helen La Lime urged ambassadors to act decisively and help address the persistent scourges of insecurity and corruption, that along with a health crisis are “accelerating Haiti’s downward spiral”.  La Lime underscored that in just a few weeks, dozens of cholera cases have been confirmed, with more than half resulting in death, and hundreds more suspected in the West and Centre Departments.

“The consequences for Haiti’s basic infrastructure have been severe, disrupting operations at the country’s hospitals and water suppliers, impacting cholera response”, she told council members, underscoring that without fuel, trash cannot be removed from neighbourhoods, while torrential rains promote flooding, which mixes with refuse “to create insalubrious conditions ripe for the spread of disease”.