©️Jean Vadler Presume
Washington, 28 August 2025.- UN Secretary General António Guterres called the humanitarian crisis in Haiti on Thursday« life or death emergency »denouncing the explosion of serious violations against children, including forced recruitment by gangs. According to the Miami Herald (28 August 2025), more than 1.3 million people, half of them children, have been displaced, while humanitarian needs for 2025 remain under 10 per cent.
Before the Security Council, António Guterres recalled that Haitian children pay the heaviest price to violence. Between 2023 and 2025, serious violations against them jumped 490 per cent, placing Haiti among the five most affected countries in the world. Abductions, murders, gang rapes, forced recruitment: « These crimes destroy bodies, minds and futures »he warned.
The Secretary-General denounced the collapse of State authority and the expansion of gangs outside Port-au-Prince. Despite the humanitarian efforts that reached 1.3 million people in the first quarter of 2025, the $908 million appeal to assist 3.9 million Haitians has so far been funded at less than 10 per cent, making this country the least sustained appeal in the world.
The Panamanian Ambassador Eloy Alfaro of Alba stressed the need to include child protection in all security measures, recalling that nearly 1,000 schools had been closed or destroyed by gangs. Jean Jean Roosevelt, Haitian musician and UNICEF ambassador, spoke about « silent condemnation of an entire generation »more than 1.5 million children are deprived of education.
Miami Herald reveals that Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, confirmed an alarming situation: an increase of 700 per cent in child recruitment and 54 per cent in killing and maiming between 2023 and 2024. It also revealed that humanitarian aid workers, including six UNICEF staff, had recently been taken hostage, demonstrating the extreme danger to workers in the field.
W.A.
