AFP – The gang violence ravaging Haiti has led to a 30 per cent increase in severe acute malnutrition in children this year, UNICEF said on Thursday, warning the lives of more than 100,000 young people are at risk.
The more than 115,000 children facing the possibility of starving to death in the Caribbean island nation in 2023 is up from nearly 86,000 last year, the United Nations (UN) children’s fund said.
“Armed violence has intensified the number of children in Haiti suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), also known as severe wasting, which has skyrocketed in the country,” UNICEF said in a statement.
“In Haiti, more and more mothers and fathers can no longer provide appropriate care and nutrition to their children, and parents cannot take them to health centres due to increasing horrific violence caused by armed groups,” UNICEF representative in Haiti Bruno
Maes said.
Rival gangs have taken control of most of the capital Port-au-Prince as Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, has been gripped by a political and economic crisis since the assassination in July 2021 of president Jovenel Moise.
