United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohamed on Wednesday urged the international community to consider the Haitian authorities’ request for military assistance to address the security crisis facing the country.
«I urge all countries with the capacity to do so to urgently consider the Government of Haiti’s request for a specialized international armed force to help restore security and alleviate the humanitarian crisis,» Mohamed told the Security Council.
«This is absolutely essential for Haiti to return to institutional stability and get back on the path to peace and sustainable development,» he added.
He reiterated his appeal to UN Secretary General António Guterres to provide international support to the Haitian National Police to contain the gangs that are undermining the security situation in the country.
«There is clearly an urgent need to respond to the most immediate emergency. But Haiti will also need international support to address the structural causes of this crisis and to break the cycles that have constrained its development for so long,» said the Deputy Secretary.
In addition, Mohamed, who acknowledged that there are many crises in the world, called for immediate help for the Haitian people. «Very few crises, if any, test our commitment and values like the one we are witnessing in Haiti,» she said.
«It is a test of the common humanity that must be at the heart of international cooperation. It is a test of our solidarity with people in deep suffering,» he said.
Mohamed acknowledged that she had been «encouraged by the nationally led efforts towards recovery» on her last visit to the country in February, referring to work to eliminate cholera and hopes for political negotiations to provide stability.
«But at the end of 2022, Haiti finds itself in a deepening crisis of unprecedented scale and complexity that is cause for grave alarm,» she has lamented, noting the «unprecedented levels» of insecurity and abuses, the expansion of criminal activities by armed gangs or the resurgence of cholera.
Haiti’s President Ariel Henry called in October for help from the international community and its Armed Forces to address the humanitarian crisis caused, among other things, «by the insecurity resulting from the criminal actions of armed gangs and their sponsors».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
