Cholera, fuel shortage, violence… The UN sounds the alarm for Haiti

A cholera epidemic, reintroduced in 2010 by peacekeepers according to several reports, had raged until 2019, killing more than 10,000 people. Three years later, the announcement on Sunday of new cases and the first seven deaths raised fears of a new disaster. Since the detection of the cholera bacillus, which is transmitted by water, 11 cases have been confirmed and 111 are suspected, for the moment only in the capital Port-au-Prince, said Thursday from Haiti the humanitarian coordinator of the in the country, Ulrika Richardson, during a video press conference.

“The numbers could be much higher”, she added. These new cases indeed appear at a time when the country lacks fuel to supply the population with drinking water and to run the hospitals. “With the current situation in the country, if all the right conditions are not met, we could face an exponential, even explosive increase in cholera cases. Unfortunately, we could even speak of a perfect combination for a disaster”warned Ulrika Richardson.

Since the announcement of a rise in fuel prices, the country already in crisis has been the scene of new violence, looting and demonstrations. And since mid-September, the Varreux oil terminal, the largest in the country, has been blocked by armed gangs. “It means that the whole country is starting to run out of fuel”forcing some health services to close and preventing garbage collection, insisted the UN official.

“It is the combination of an already serious and terrible humanitarian situation (…) reinforced by an economic crisis, fuel prices and insecurity”, she hammered, pointing out that nearly half of the population suffers from hunger. Under these conditions, the UN and other humanitarian organizations called on Thursday for the “immediate creation of a humanitarian corridor to allow fuel to get out and meet the urgent needs of the population”.