{"id":3675,"date":"2023-07-02T17:40:43","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T17:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaparrot.com\/?p=3675"},"modified":"2023-07-02T17:41:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T17:41:58","slug":"un-chief-calls-on-world-to-make-troubled-haiti-top-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaparrot.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/02\/un-chief-calls-on-world-to-make-troubled-haiti-top-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"UN chief calls on world to make troubled Haiti ‘top priority’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On a visit to spotlight violence and chaos in Haiti, the UN secretary-general on Saturday called for a robust international effort to help the country’s beleaguered police in fighting rampant criminal gangs.<\/p>

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For months, Antonio Guterres has raised the alarm bell about the situation in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, which has been wracked by spiraling violence, a worsening public health situation and political instability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he traveled to Port-au-Prince — his first visit to Haiti as head of the United Nations — to make his point on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We must put Haiti on the international political map, and make the tragedy of the Haitian people the international community’s top priority,” Guterres told a press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I met Haitians, and I felt the exhaustion of a population that has been facing a cascade of crises and unbearable living conditions for too long,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is not the time to forget about Haiti,” Guterres said after meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Henry, and other political and civil society leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guterres urged the UN Security Council, which is due to discuss the Haiti situation later this month, “to authorize the immediate deployment of a robust international security force.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, he relayed Henry’s request for a non-UN force to support the overwhelmed national police force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the call has gone unheeded. A few countries have indicated their willingness to participate, but none has volunteered to lead an operation in a country where multiple past foreign interventions have become mired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I call on those states that have the capacity to provide a robust security force to stop hesitating and be ready to follow a Security Council decision,” Guterres said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Every day counts. If we don’t act now, instability and violence will have a lasting impact on generations of Haitians.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n