Two weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean, governments and aid agencies are still struggling to reach communities left without homes, healthcare and basic services, as damage assessments in Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti continue to rise, the UN said on Tuesday.
People being held in prisons in Haiti are dying of starvation in subhuman conditions according to the UN’s Designated Expert on the human rights situation in the Caribbean island nation, William O'Neill.
Haiti is facing an increasingly perilous security crisis as gangs compete to control the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas, impacting an already dysfunctional justice system.
Prisons are severely overcrowded, and some detainees can wait for years to be tried for minor offences, including the theft of chickens or shoes.
Fifty-two prisoners have died in Haiti’s overcrowded prisons between July and September this year in conditions that have been described by the United Nations as “inhuman and degrading.”
The UN Secretary-General expressed solidarity with Jamaicans on Sunday struggling to cope with the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
As Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica as a category 5 storm, agencies continue mobilising supplies to support affected communities, with one senior official on the island telling UN News that Government-led preparations have been nothing short of “extraordinary”.
Millions of people across the Caribbean are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Melissa as it reached Category 5 status on Monday – the most powerful on the scale – defined by sustained winds of at least 157 mph (252 kmh).
With Hurricane Melissa threatening to unleash torrential rains and hurricane-force winds across the Caribbean, at least 1.6 million children are at risk as families in Jamaica, Haiti and surrounding islands brace for flooding, landslides and widespread disruption.
The people of Haiti have not given up and “their fortitude gives us hope,” the UN Special Representative to the country told the Security Council on Wednesday.
Following renewal of the Security Council’s sanctions regime in Haiti and a resolution to create a new Gang Suppression Force to combat the scourge of gang violence, ambassadors heard this afternoon from the top UN official in the country. In his first briefing as head of the UN office in Haiti (BINUH), Carlos Ruiz Massieu reported on latest developments, as brutal violence and insecurity continues to rage, increasing pressure on diplomats to act fast and decisively to protect millions of Haitians facing impunity and chaos. UN News app users can follow live coverage here.
