United Nations, February 12: Humanitarians at the United Nations on Thursday reported a 79 percent increase over last February in the number of people needing assistance in Haiti, including 4.4 million who are food insecure.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a release the number of people in need amounts to about 40 percent of the country's 11.4 million population.
The reason is "a series of extreme sociopolitical shocks since 2018, which have significantly affected pre-existing fragility and people's resilience," the office said. "The ongoing economic and sociopolitical crisis, the spread of COVID-19 and the effects of natural disasters, such as tropical storm Laura that hit Haiti in August 2020, have all hit hard."
"Recently, incidents of insecurity have increased in the country, including kidnappings, and clashes between armed gangs leading to civilian deaths, the burning of houses and population displacement," OCHA said. "Public demonstrations and strikes have continued to paralyze basic services, halted public transport and forced businesses and public institutions to close."
However, if the security situation allows, the humanitarian office sees normalcy slowly returning among indications schools may open next week. Most schools have been closed since the first of the month.
Humanitarian organizations are working with local authorities to provide shelter, food, non-food items, sanitation, water, hygiene, protection and health needs for about 500 internally displaced households who fled gang violence in August 2020, OCHA said. The displaced people are in deteriorating living conditions and need protection.
The International Organization for Migration is developing an emergency relocation plan for the displaced people.
Last year, humanitarian assistance reached 1.4 million people in Haiti with aid. The 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan only gained 155.7 million U.S. dollars out of the 472 million U.S. dollars sought.
Source: Xinhua
