UN warns Haiti's capital blockaded, no aid for malnourished children

By Michelle Nichols and Ralph Tedy Erol

UNITED NATIONS/PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's capital is almost completely cut off by air, sea and land blockades as gang violence intensifies, stopping aid from getting to 58,000 children with the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, the head of the U.N. children's agency warned on Monday.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said two-thirds of Haiti's children need aid, women and girls are being targeted with "extreme levels" of gender-based and sexual violence and 30-50% of armed groups have children in their ranks.

"The situation in Haiti is catastrophic, and it grows worse by the day," Russell told the U.N. Security Council. "Port-au-Prince is now almost completely sealed off because of air, sea and land blockades."

Haiti is preparing for the installation of a nine-member council to take over from Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who pledged to step down on March 11 while stranded outside the country and under pressure from the United States.

Haiti's gangs, many of which have grouped together under an alliance known as "Viv Ansanm" (Living Together), have said their siege on the capital was a battle to oust Henry, but since his announcement there has been little let-up in attacks.

Viv Ansanm gangs were fighting police around the National Palace on Monday, local media reported. The transitional council is set to be installed in the palace, though the date has yet to be confirmed.

"Since March 8, close to 100,000 Haitians have left Port-au-Prince for the regions, escaping gang violence in search of security," U.N. special envoy on Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador told the Security Council.

"Food insecurity also remains rampant across the country, with half of the population suffering from severe food insecurity," she said, adding that a U.N. appeal for $674 million for 2024 was only 8% funded.

'RUNNING OUT OF FUEL'

Operations at Haiti's main fuel import terminal were suspended on Monday as armed men seized trucks and demanded the port be shut down, according to a source with information on the matter.

Armed gangs blocked the Varreux terminal for nearly a month in October 2021, and again a year later for more than a month, halting most economic activities and prompting the government to call for foreign intervention.

"They are running out of fuel," World Food Programme Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau, who visited Haiti over the weekend, told Reuters earlier on Monday. "There's a ship coming. If that can dock and unload then they are safe, but we are talking about days until they run out."

With most businesses unable to maintain power without their diesel generators, under the previous blockades hospitals were forced to shut down, radio stations stopped programming, mobile antennas ran out of fuel and transport was brought to a halt.

The Security Council authorized in October 2023 a foreign security mission to Haiti. But the mission, which Kenya has stepped forward to lead, has not yet deployed amid legal and funding issues.

Russell said that given the security mission will likely be deployed in dense urban environments, "the safety of the civilian population is paramount."

"The use of force in and around populated areas must be avoided, and the mission must only use the least harmful means that are necessary and proportionate to the legitimate law enforcement objective," she said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Ralph Tedy Erol in Port-au-Prince; Additional reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Simon Lewis in Washington; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)