Haitian ladies and women face ‘alarming’ violence in displacement camps: UN | Women News | USAEMALL.com

Lack of infrastructure in Haiti’s makeshift camps puts women and girls at risk of gender-based violence, UN report says.

Haitian women and girls are facing an “alarming” level of violence, including threats of rape, in makeshift displacement camps that have sprung up as a result of a surge of gang violence in the Caribbean nation, the United Nations says.

In a report released on Wednesday, UN Women said the camps lack basic necessities, such as lighting and locks for bedrooms and toilets, which leaves women and girls “particularly at risk of sexual and gender-based violence”.

“Gender-based violence has reached alarming levels, with aggression against women and girls, and more specifically rape, being used in most camps as a deliberate tactic to control access to humanitarian assistance,” the agency said.

The report comes as a second contingent of Kenyan police landed in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince this week as part of a UN-backed mission that aims to tackle a surge in gang violence.

Haiti has reeled from years of violence as armed groups – often with ties to the country’s political and business leaders – have vied for influence and control of territory.

An uptick in attacks across Port-au-Prince at the end of February prompted the resignation of Haiti’s unelected prime minister, the creation of a transitional presidential council and the Kenyan police deployment.

More than 578,000 Haitians have been internally displaced as a result of the violence, according to the UN, and just over half of that figure are women and girls.

Philomene Dayiti is among about 800 people living in a makeshift camp in a church courtyard in Port-au-Prince’s sprawling metropolitan area, surrounded by personal belongings hanging on walls or clotheslines.

“The only thing I’m asking for: I’d like to go home, find a place to rest,” the 65-year-old told the AFP news agency. “I can’t stay here indefinitely.”

Despite the presence of 400 Kenyan police officers in the country, the security situation remains shaky, and displaced Haitians have been forced to live in squalid conditions as they wait to safely return to their homes.

The UN-backed security mission ran into numerous delays and has been met with criticism, including in Kenya, where President William Ruto has faced questions over a deadly police crackdown on protests.

Haitian human rights advocates have said the deployment alone cannot solve systemic problems in the country, and they have urged safeguards to be put in place to prevent possible abuses by the international police force.

In the meantime, Haitian civil society leaders have tried to respond to the displacement crisis.

Meus Lotaire, the 61-year-old pastor at the crowded International Primitive Church, where Dayiti has sought refuge, said it was a major task managing the hundreds of people living there.

“There are so many people here. … It’s swarming with people,” Lotaire told AFP.

“We have all kinds of problems,” he added, noting a serious shortage of toilets.

In Wednesday’s report, UN Women also spoke to displaced Haitians across six makeshift displacement camps who decried a lack of healthcare, education and other services.

Only 10 percent of the women surveyed said they had access to health services at the internal displacement sites while more than three-quarters of all those surveyed said they had not received any aid since arriving at the camps.

“Our report tells us that the level of insecurity and brutality, including sexual violence, that women are facing at the hands of gangs in Haiti is unprecedented,” UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said in a statement accompanying the report. “It must stop now.”