P-to-P, April 5, 2024 [AlterPresse]— The United Nations (UN) put in 12 million American dollars (Editor’s note: US $1.00=+ 140.00 gourdes; 1 euro=144.00 gourdes; 1 Canadian dollar=98.00 gourdes; 1 Dominican peso=2.40 gourdes today today) in its Central Emergency Response Fund, with the aim of helping families affected by the escalation of armed gang violence, in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, since Thursday February 29, 2024.
The funds will be used to provide food, water, protection and health care to displaced families and host communities in Port-au-Prince and the Artibonite department, said the spokesperson. words of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, during a press briefing on Thursday April 4, 2024, noted by the online agency AlterPresse.
“We only received $45 million of the $674 million requested,” regarding funding for the humanitarian response plan, Dujarric said.
The rise in acts of violence and terror by armed gangs, since the end of February 2024, has reached unprecedented levels, leading to a worsening of food insecurity and multiple displacements of thousands of people, notes the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Haiti.
“Haiti is grappling with an unprecedented crisis. Families continue to struggle to meet the most basic needs, while desperation deepens,” the IOM said.
The head of IOM in Haiti, Philippe Branchat, points out how “humanitarian personnel (…) are faced with unprecedented security challenges”.
In a report published on April 2, 2024, the United Nations Office in Haiti for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), in collaboration with humanitarian partners, notes a reduction in access to health care, following attacks against health facilities by armed gangs, which continues in the metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“The hospital of the State University of Haiti (Hueh), whose reopening was scheduled for Monday April 1, 2024, and the Bernard Mevs hospital, remain closed,” mentions the document, which covers the period from from Thursday March 29 to Tuesday April 2, 2024.
Care in Hueh has been suspended since Thursday February 29, 2024, due to the intensification of violence by armed gangs.
Between March 8 and 27, 2024, more than 53 thousand people were forced to leave the capital, Port-au-Prince to take refuge in the provincesdue to persistent crime, according to the latest data published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The majority of these displaced people headed towards the departments of the Great South of Haiti, specifies the IOM. [emb rc apr 05/04/2024 13:00]
