UN Secretary-General Guterres warns of severe humanitarian crisis in Haiti

During a visit to Port‑au‑Prince on 16‑17 June, UN Secretary‑General António Guterres said Haiti is experiencing the most severe humanitarian emergency in the Western Hemisphere and the third‑worst worldwide after Palestine and Sudan. He reported that about 6 million people face acute food insecurity, 1.5 million have been displaced and more than 2,300 have been killed with 1,100 injured since the start of the year.

Guterres linked the crisis to heavily‑armed gangs that control large parts of the capital, noting a three‑fold rise in child recruitment and an average of over 20 daily sexual assaults against women and girls. He criticized the international community for providing only roughly 25 % of the $880 million needed for the UN humanitarian response plan, calling the lack of funding “shameful.”

The UN chief urged donors to fund the response, support Haiti’s institutions and the UN‑approved Gang Suppression Force of up to 5,500 troops, and accelerate the political transition led by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils‑Aimé, who has been in power without elections since 2016. He noted limited signs of recovery as state forces reclaimed neighborhoods in Port‑au‑Prince.