PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haitian children face a severe lack of food, medical support and education, the head of the United Nation’s children’s agency UNICEF said in the capital Port-au-Prince yesterday, hours after heavy shooting rang out near a packed camp of displaced persons.
Heavily armed gangs have expanded their turf and now control communities accounting for some two million people, according to U.N. estimates, mostly women and children living amid frequent extra-judicial killings and sexual violence.
This has fueled a humanitarian crisis the agency believes has internally displaced over 165,000 people, while driving many to attempt a dangerous escape by boat.
“Children are malnourished, they need help and the world needs to pay attention,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in an interview after visiting the New Church of God of Deliverance camp, which now harbors 120 families from hard-hit neighborhoods, including 239 children.
The children desperately need healthcare like immunizations, and schooling, she added: “Adults need to stop fighting and take care of children.”
“We hope we won’t be hosting any more kids because there is no more room,” said Stephanie Pierre, who manages the crowded camp that serves as a mobile clinic distributing sanitation kits and information about cholera.
At a meeting on Haiti last week, Russell said UNICEF has documented an unprecedented 30% increase in Haitian children suffering from severe wasting from last year, making them far more vulnerable to dying from cholera, which reemerged in October.
The agency estimates over 100,000 children are at immediate risk of starving to death, out of total estimated population of around 12 million.
“The time for action is long overdue,” said Russell ahead of a July summit of European, Caribbean and Latin American states she described as an opportunity for the world “to rally around Haiti with investments and action.”
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, head of the regional bloc that will meet with European Union representatives, warned last week that Haitian gangs are a major hurdle.
International aid organizations like Medecins Sans Frontieres have closed some operations due to safety risks facing their patients and staff because of frequent shoot-outs and shifting battle-lines.
Russell noted that any additional shocks, such as a natural disaster, could be devastating for already vulnerable communities.
A tropical storm expected to become the season’s first hurricane is for now seen approaching Haiti later this week.