Category: World News

The UN human rights chief sounded the alarm on Thursday over the rapidly deteriorating situation in Haiti, calling it a “catastrophe” fuelled by gang violence, widespread impunity and a political process that is hanging by a thread.

An increase in attacks on media outlets in Haiti by armed gangs which control most of the capital Port-au-Prince is intended to intimidate journalists and instill chaos according to the UN agency for culture, UNESCO.

In just one month, intensifying violence has forced over 60,000 people to flee their homes in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, marking another grim record in the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis.

Haiti is in freefall. Gangs are tightening their grip on the capital, violence is spreading, and “suffering permeates all social strata” in a nation teetering on the brink, according to the UN human rights office’s designated expert on the country, William O’Neill. 

Gang violence, political instability and economic turmoil have displaced over 700,000 people in Haiti, forcing families from their homes with nothing but what they can carry; some 5.5 million people – half of Haiti’s population – rely on humanitarian aid to survive.

The ongoing emergency in Haiti is crushing children’s chances of an education and a better future as scores of youngsters are recruited by heavily armed and violent gangs, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.

More than 6,000 people in Haiti have been forced from their homes by gang violence in almost a month, hampering aid efforts by humanitarian agencies, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has issued a stark warning about ongoing violence in Colombia perpetrated by armed groups and criminal organisations, which threatens the country’s nearly ten year old peace accord. 

Around 80,000 people in northeastern Colombia are suffering the devastating consequences of an armed conflict that escalated on 15 January of this year. Caught in the crossfire between armed groups, thousands have been forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs while others remain trapped in their homes.