Prime Minister Andrew Holness and UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently joined hands in reiterating their request for further assistance from the international community in tackling the escalating situation in Haiti.
After holding bilateral talks in the Jamaican Office of the Prime Minister, Guterres, and Holness announced the announcement during a news conference.
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Holness told reporters that the group is disappointed at the lack of assistance in tackling the current issue due to gang violence that the nation faces, “We lamented that there has not been more action to address the situation in Haiti.”
Holness continued, “We repeat our call for greater attention to be paid by the international community to the very urgent security and humanitarian situation in Haiti.” He explained that while the Caribbean Community was contributing to the effort, more help was still required.
In a previous statement, Holness stated that Jamaica is prepared to send security personnel to Haiti as part of an international effort to stabilize the violently unstable French-speaking Caribbean country.
According to UN statistics, the number of murders in Haiti from January to the end of March increased by 20% as compared to the same period in 2022. In comparison to the last three months of 2022, there were 637 kidnappings throughout the course of the time, a rise of 63%.
As a result of gangs torching homes and killing individuals in territory controlled by rival gangs, more than 100,000 Haitians have been forced to leave their homes.
Guterres called the state of affairs in Haiti “tragic” and said that a foreign armed force ought to be sent there immediately.
“Haiti is in a tragic situation… you have dramatic humanitarian needs, you have a political system that is paralyzed, and you have a level of violence by gangs that are absolutely appalling… It needs much stronger commitment by the international community,” Guterres shared.
Nevertheless, despite the requests, the international world has generally shown little interest; Guterres claimed that this lack of attention is a result of pessimism over the country’s political predicament.
The UN Secretary-General told the media, “This has been a difficult exercise, it has been difficult to mobilize the will of those that would have the best capacity to lead this operation and it has been difficult to create also the political condition to make it easier for different countries to accept to be part of these actions.”
The head of the UN praised Jamaica for taking the lead in Caricom’s efforts to help Haiti.
Guterres remarked, “Jamaica was the first country to immediately express its readiness to be part of this operation, and Jamaica in the context of Caricom is involved in a very important political process trying to bring together the different stakeholders to find a way out of this political crisis.”.
He continued by stating, “I want to express my full support to the initiative of Jamaica and Caricom and I want to once again ask the international community to understand that an effective solidarity with Haiti is not only a matter of generosity, it’s essentially a matter of enlightened self-interest because the present situation of Haiti reflects a threat to the security of the whole region and further afield.”
According to Holness, a Caricom delegation he headed “had very meaningful discussions with stakeholders there and that process is advancing.”
He continues by stating that the undeniable reality is that Haiti needs security aid.
