While the security and health situation continues to worsen and the Haitian state is “paralyzed”, Antonio Guterres urges the members of the United Nations to help him.
Le Monde with AFP
The Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) Antonio Guterres claimed, Sunday, October 9, the deployment of an international armed force in Haiti, extremely poor country of the Caribbean “paralyzed” by a “dramatic” security crisis under the ‘ grip of criminal bands and under the threat of cholera.
“[Mr. Guterres] urges the international community, including members of the Security Council, to urgently examine the Haitian government’s request to deploy an international specialized armed force without delay to face the humanitarian crisis”, said his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, in a statement. The UN chief “remains extremely concerned about the situation in Haiti, which faces a flambé of cholera cases in a context of dramatic deterioration of security which paralyzed the country” of the Caribbean, according to the spokesman.
The next Security Council dedicated to the crisis in Haiti is scheduled for October 21 but Antonio Guterres already sent to the Council on Sunday “A letter presenting options for reinforced security support”, in accordance with the Resolution 2645 adopted on July 15, said the same source. This resolution has extended the mandate of the United Nations Bureau in Haiti (Binuh), a structure that replaced the UN peacekeeping mission and which is trying to help local police. H2> cholera resurgence
In the letter given by Mr. Guterres to the Security Council, and obtained by the France-Presse (AFP) agency, the UN chief also denounces “the criminal bands that have taken control of strategic infrastructure such as the International Port of Port-au-Prince and the main fuel terminal in the country (Varreux) “. In addition, it is alarmed, “there is in this context an resurgence of cholera and the current situation has created the perfect conditions for an exponential increase (of cases) throughout the country”.
The UN had already warned Thursday against a risk of “explosion” of cholera cases in the country. After the introduction of the bacteria by peacekeepers in 2010, an epidemic raised until 2019, killing more than 10,000 people. The announcement, Sunday, new cases and first seven deaths won the fears of a new disaster at the time, with the last push of violence, the country lacks fuel to feed the population with drinking water and run the Hospitals.
Since the recent detection of the cholera bacillus, which is transmitted by water, eleven cases have been confirmed and 111 are suspected, for the moment only in the capital Port-au-Prince, had indicated on Thursday, during From a press conference by video from Haiti, UN in the country, Ulrika Richardson. But “the figures could be much higher”, according to her, specifying that analyzes were underway abroad to determine whether or not it was the same strain in 2010.
“A new degree of despair”
Since the announcement, on September 11, by Prime Minister Ariel Henry of an increase in fuel prices, the country has been the scene of new violence, looting and demonstrations. And since mid-September, the Varreux oil terminal, the most important in the country, has been blocked by armed gangs.
At the end of September, two UN officials had described before the Security Council a “humanitarian disaster” in this poor country, where the situation reached “a new degree of despair” and had predicted that this year “4, 5 million people (would meet) in level of food insecurity of crisis or worse, including 1.3 million in emergency. ”
Haiti has been stuck for years in a deep economic, security, political crisis and the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 has deeply worsened the situation with an increasingly strong grip of the gangs.