UN provides 4.9 million euros in emergency funds to Haiti to alleviate insecurity in the country

The United Nations announced Friday the delivery of 5 million dollars (4.9 million euros) through the emergency fund to alleviate the situation of insecurity in Haiti, which is suffering a wave of violence by criminal gangs in Port-au-Prince.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths has ordered the UN Emergency Response Control Fund to release this amount to help with food, water, mental health services and education to the nearly 1.5 million people affected by the “high level of insecurity in Haiti.”

Specifically, about 280,000 people are affected by the activities of armed groups fighting for the Cité Soleil neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. Violence is also spreading to the south, also controlled by gangs.

A spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke, has pointed out in a press conference that “all these people are trapped” in gang violence — especially sexual violence, which he has described as “endemic” — so they cannot leave these cities.

Haiti is going through a crisis situation. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, Haiti’s always convulsive political and economic situation has been even worse. The power vacuum soon degenerated into a security crisis, with murders and kidnappings on a daily basis, especially in large areas of the capital.