Almost 3 million children in Haiti are in urgent need for humanitarian support, which is the highest number on record amid a social and political crisis in the country, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th June, 2023) Almost 3 million children in Haiti are in urgent need for humanitarian support, which is the highest number on record amid a social and political crisis in the country, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.
"Nearly 3 million children - the highest number on record - need humanitarian support in Haiti, where they face staggering levels of violence that have exacerbated hunger and malnutrition in a country already mired in poverty and a resurgence of cholera," UNICEF said in a statement.
Children in Haiti are often at risk of being in the crossfire of armed groups, which "terrorize the population in their fight for territory and control," the statement read, adding that children could be killed or injured on their way to school, with the cases of kidnappings for ransom having skyrocketed.
Since last year, the number of children facing malnutrition has gone up by 30%, and natural disasters that are regularly hitting the country make the crisis even worse, UNICEF stated.
"Being a child in Haiti today is harsher and more dangerous than it ever has been in living memory. The threats and hardships children face are simply unimaginable. They desperately need protection and support," UNICEF Haiti Representative Bruno Maes was quoted in a statement as saying.
Haiti has long been mired in a socio-political crisis that escalated after the assassination of then-President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021. The country faced an unprecedented increase in the activities of criminal groups, while the humanitarian situation has been further deteriorating due to natural disasters such as severe floods, torrential rains and earthquakes.
In May, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that Haiti was on the verge of an "abyss" in terms of the situation with human rights in the country.
The International Organization for Migration estimated in early June that over 165,000 people had been internally displaced in Haiti in the first three months of 2023 due to gang violence, murders and kidnappings as well as a dire humanitarian situation.
