UNITED NATIONS, May 8 (NNN-XINHUA) — UN humanitarians said on Tuesday that recent heavy rains in the northwest of violence-scarred Haiti have triggered flooding and landslides that have taken 13 lives.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said local authorities reported that a landslide in Cap-Haitien killed 13 people.
Many people fleeing deadly gang violence in the capital of Port-au-Prince sought safety to the north, including in the Cap-Haitien region along the country’s northern coast. Local authorities said the downpour also damaged homes and businesses.
OCHA said more rainfall and additional floods are expected in the coming days, including in the capital, where sites hosting people displaced by the ongoing violence were already facing sanitation challenges before the heavy rains. The heavy rain began Friday.
OCHA said that in a statement related to violence in the capital, the interim humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Bruno Maes, strongly condemned the profound humanitarian impact of repeated attacks in the Solino neighborhood and the surrounding areas of Port-au-Prince, where thousands of people fled their homes and the violence.
“The siege of the civilian population in Solino, including women, children and men who find themselves without access to water, food and fuel, is a blatant violation of the basic humanitarian norms,” he said.
“I urge the perpetrators of these acts to cease the violence so that the population can live without fear in their homes, in complete safety, and so humanitarian actors can assist those affected,” Maes said. — NNN-XINHUA