UN warns of crisis due to humanitarian conditions and violence in Haiti

Published at: 05/04/2024 08:58 AM

William O'Neill, the United Nations's leading expert on human rights in Haiti, warned that humanitarian conditions in the country are rapidly deteriorating and could become “like Somalia in its worst times”, amid increased gang violence and political instability.

“I think the difference here is that the State is practically absent. There is no State and it's almost like a Hobbesian world where the fittest survive... and unfortunately the fittest right now are gangs,” O'Neill said

Thousands of people have fled the capital, Port-au-Prince, which is 90 percent controlled by criminal gangs.

O'Neill added that he fears that violence will soon affect the rest of the country and cause a mass exodus of Haitians to the neighboring Dominican Republic or the United States, Telesur details.

Mazo News Team