UNSC to meet on Haiti cholera epidemic
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will convene today on the humanitarian crisis in Haiti due to the country’s cholera outbreak.
This is the second time this week the UNSC will meet to address the crisis. In September, the government announced fuel price hikes which resulted in an explosion of gang violence and public unrest. Armed gangs now control Haiti’s point of entry for fuel in Varreux, causing a fuel shortage and a lack of clean water. Officials worry that the current shutdown of hospitals and other health facilities combined with a lack of clean water could cause cholera, a water-borne disease, to become unmanageable. The rapidity of the outbreak has officials worried that an uncontrolled increase in cases could exacerbate the current humanitarian crisis.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry and a resident UN humanitarian representative have called for a humanitarian corridor to allow for the passage of fuel and for foreign assistance in strengthening Haiti’s security forces. Haiti’s crisis comes five years after the departure of UN peacekeepers from Nepal who brought cholera to the country. Although UN representatives recently apologized for the outbreak, the organization failed to take responsibility—which may impede its ability to assist Haitian police.
