The UN has asked the international community to consider the deployment of a special force in Haiti

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Volker Turkishurged the international community to “consider earnestly the deployment of a time-limited specialist support force” to Haiti during a visit amid escalating violence.

Turk said in a statement that residents of the island were being harassed and terrorized by criminal gangs without the state being able to stop it. “It can only be described as a living nightmare,” he added.

He asked the international community not to forget Haiti and to pay attention to it because in this country you live “one of the worst situations of poverty and terror in the world”. He underlined his concern and his fear that the situation in Haiti does not receive the attention it deserves in a context of multiple international crises.

“I am here to warn of the danger of viewing the situation in Haiti as insurmountable and hopeless…I am here to draw attention to this situation and help drive action on behalf of Haitians. The world needs to hear what I witnessed and what my colleagues document every day,” he said during a press conference in Port-au-Prince to take stock of his visit. .

According to him, “the way out of this multi-crisis of human rights must be assumed and led by the Haitian people. But the magnitude of the problem is such that it requires the active attention and support of the international community.

Turk described the situation in Haiti as catastrophic, “where the problems are enormous and overwhelming” and where armed gangs are creating a almost permanent climate of terror since last July.

He spoke of a country where armed gangs control access to water, food, health care and fuel in the capital, where kidnappings are frequent and children are prevented from going to school. school or recruited to commit acts of violence or abuse.

The UN human rights chief, who said he was listening to the call for help from the worst affected communities in Haiti, warned that in the Caribbean country, social services are largely absent , one in two people are hungrylives in extreme poverty and has no access to water, and prisoners die of malnutrition and cholera.

He also recalled that this is a city with a long history of resilience, resistance and determination in the face of all kinds of adverse situations, from natural disasters to man-made crises imposed from within and from the outside. “It is first and foremost a country born out of the struggle for dignity and human rights, against colonialism, slavery and systemic racism,” he said.

The High Commissioner arrived in Haiti last Wednesday at the invitation of the Government and, during his stay, met Prime Minister Ariel Henryand members of his cabinet such as heads of justice and women’s affairs, as well as representatives of the Ombudsman, senior national police officials, members of civil society and victims of human rights violations.

Now he leaves Haiti worried about what he saw on the ground of the poorest country in americawhere the crisis aggravated after the 2021 assassination of former President Jovenel Moise added in recent months the reappearance of the angerwhich has already claimed hundreds of lives.

For the moment, the international community has not specified a response to the request made last October by the Haitian government concerning the dispatch of a foreign force.

Following this request, UN Secretary General António Guterres has proposed the creation of a “rapid action force” with the military of one or more countries and not under the flag of the United Nations.

With information from Reuters and EFE

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