UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti calls for more protection for civilians

UNITED NATIONS, May 17: The UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti is calling for greater protection and assistance for people living in areas affected by the ongoing gang violence, said a UN spokesman on Friday.

Ulrika Richardson, the coordinator, said it is unacceptable that people who simply are going about their daily lives and children playing outside and going to school are targeted.

Schools and hospitals are being looted and destroyed, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In Haiti, about 360,000 people are displaced, the majority of them women and children, including more than 160,000 people in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, he noted.

Many families have been displaced multiple times and the recent coordinated attacks on the neighborhoods of Delmas and Gressier on April 25 displaced another 10,000 people, said Haq.

Following assessments in Gressier, the World Food Programme said close to 2,900 people will receive daily hot meals for two weeks. The agency has also continued food distributions in Cite Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince’s most vulnerable and poorest neighborhoods, reaching 80,000 people since May 10, he said.