United Nations Secretary General António Guterres visited Haiti on Saturday to draw attention to the crisis facing the impoverished Caribbean country in its fight against violent gangs that have invaded much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Guterres’s visit comes nearly nine months after he endorsed a Haitian government plea for help and proposed that one or more countries send a “quick action force” to support the Haitian security services. No such force has yet been deployed as no country has taken the initiative.
“I am in Port-au-Prince to express my full solidarity with the Haitian people and to call on the international community to continue to support Haiti, including with a robust international force to assist the Haitian National Police,” said Guterres on Twitter. “This is not the time to forget about Haiti.”
In Photos | Anti-government protests persist in Haiti
Anti-government protests over rising fuel and food prices have been taking place in Haiti since August, while gang violence continues.
Guterres said in april to the UN Security Council that saw the insecurity in Port-au-Prince as “comparable to that of countries in armed conflict” and stated that Haitians were facing one of the worst human rights crises in decades.
In September last year, the gangs compounded the humanitarian crisis by blockading a fuel terminal for six weeks, paralyzing most economic activity. In October, the UN Security Council sanctioned the most powerful gangster in Haitiaccused of leading the blockade in protest of government cuts in fuel subsidies.
The United States and Canada have also imposed sanctions on Haitian political figures and businessmen.
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