Haiti health system on verge of collapse, UN says
Haiti’s health system is “on the verge of collapse,” according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), which reports that six out of ten hospitals in the country are barely operational.
“The combination of violence, mass displacement, dangerous epidemics, and increasing malnutrition has strained Haiti’s health system,” stated Bruno Maes, Unicef’s representative in the Caribbean nation. He emphasised, however, that “the strangling of supply chains may be what breaks it.”
Armed gangs continue to control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and Unicef warns that millions of children are at risk of disease and malnutrition.
The country has been plagued by severe instability since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, with gangs increasingly controlling large areas.
Currently, approximately 4.4 million people in Haiti urgently need food assistance, with 1.6 million facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity, raising the risk of child wasting and malnutrition, Unicef reports.
Port-au-Prince’s international airport reopened earlier this week after nearly three months of closure. However, Unicef noted that it is operating with limited capacity and a significant backlog.
The situation in the capital is particularly dire, according to the UN agency. Containers filled with essential supplies have been held up or looted, as have many warehouses and pharmacies.