The experts detailed the far-reaching impacts of the violence and lawlessness that has led to chaos across the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other areas under gang control this year.

“The outbreak of violence in Haiti has resulted in loss of livelihoods and food insecurity, widespread and multiple displacement, the collapse of education, breakdown of healthcare and other essential services,” they said.

The Human Rights Council-appointed experts also pointed to the near total lack of access to justice due to fear of reprisals and the collapse of the economy.

‘Tactic to instil fear’

Particularly alarming is the use of sexual violence by criminal gangs, which is employed as a tactic to instil fear, control territories, extort money and punish communities. 

“Internally displaced women and girls who live in inadequate and precarious displacement sites are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence,” they said, warning of a sharp rise in trafficking them for purposes of sexual exploitation and sexual slavery.

They also voiced concern over the Haitian authorities’ failure to protect vulnerable populations as well as being “actively complicit” in gang activities. 

“Haiti must return to democratic and constitutional governance based on the principles of respect for human rights, transparency and accountability,” the experts urged.

The experts, who serve in their individual capacity independent of the UN or any national government, called on the criminal gangs to put an immediate end to all forms of gender-based violence.

Deadly rains continue pounding East Africa

Hundreds of thousands of lives have been impacted by recent heavy rainfall and massive floods in parts of Eastern Africa as the UN continues to offer support to governments across the region. 

Reports from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicate that close to 750,000 people are affected by the rains and floods, with 234,000 displaced.

Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was deeply distressed over the loss of life due to heavy flooding in Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and other parts of East Africa.

Cholera risk in Somalia worsens

The rains have affected more than 160,000 civilians in Somalia leaving 37,000 displaced. UN partners estimate that up to 770,000 Somalis could be impacted overall, exacerbating the ongoing cholera epidemic there, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, briefing reporters in New York on Monday.

In Kenya, local authorities warned that over 285,000 lives have been affected so far, with more than 200 reported deaths. In Burundi, more than 180,000 people were impacted. Additionally, dozens of Rwandans have been killed or injured due to the rains and floods.

The UN and its partners continue to support these Eastern African countries through flood response plans, evacuation efforts and healthcare, including psychosocial support.

Namibia: Praise for efforts to end mother-to-child transmission of HIV

Namibia has become the first country in Africa and the first high-burden country in the world to reach a key milestone in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of both HIV and hepatitis B, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday.

WHO has awarded the southern African country “silver tier” status for progress on reducing hepatitis B and “bronze tier” for progress on HIV, in line with its triple elimination initiative to protect the health of mothers and children that also includes ending syphilis infections.

‘Landmark achievement’

The UN agency certifies a country with silver tier status when 50 per cent or more of all newborns are given the hepatitis B vaccine. Bronze certification is awarded when mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been reduced to less than five per cent. 

“This is a landmark achievement by Namibia that demonstrates the lifesaving possibilities of committed political leadership and effective implementation of public health priorities,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.

WHO’s initiative promotes an end to mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B by encouraging countries to integrate services.

“Namibia has met this milestone by taking a truly integrated approach to the HIV response from early on,” said Etleva Kadilli, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa. 

“The country has not addressed HIV in isolation as a single disease, but as part of a broader health and development agenda, encompassing maternal and child health for all.” 

In its latest warning to the Israeli authorities not to pursue mass evacuation orders from eastern Rafah, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, insisted that a mass evacuation on such a scale would be “impossible to carry out safely”.

“There are nine sites sheltering displaced people in the area. It is also home to three clinics and six warehouses,” OCHA said in its latest update on the emergency, which noted that more than three quarters of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders.

“Any escalation of hostilities resulting from a full-scale incursion into Rafah will push residents and displaced people currently living there past their breaking point.”

The warning relating to Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings followed an urgent appeal from UN Secretary-General António Guterres late Monday to both sides “to go the extra mile” and make an agreement to end seven months of devastating conflict, his spokesperson said in a statement.

In Geneva, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for OCHA, told journalists that permission had not been granted by the Israeli authorities to reach the Rafah crossing. 

“We currently do not have any physical presence at the Rafah crossing as our access to go to that area for coordination purposes has been denied by COGAT,” he said, in reference to the Israeli Government organisation overseeing relief deliveries in Gaza. “So, that means that currently the two main arteries for getting aid into Gaza have been choked off.”  

Mr. Laerke further warned that existing humanitarian stocks in Gaza could be expected to last no more than about a day. He also noted that Rafah is the only entry point for fuel, without which generators, trucks and communications equipment cannot function.

“If no fuel comes in for a prolonged period of time, it would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave,” he continued, noting that Rafah “is in crosshairs”. “IDF is ignoring all warnings about [what] this could mean for the humanitarian operation across the Strip.”

Famine call

Echoing those concerns, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that a military assault on Rafah would massively complicate aid delivery.

“It is hard to see if [Rafah] closes for an extended period how aid agencies avert famine across the Gaza Strip…families’ coping capacity has been smashed. Families are hanging on psychologically and physically by a thread. I do not remember meeting a single family, and I met scores, who hadn’t lost a home, a loved one or both,” UNICEF’s spokesperson James Elder said. 

Women bearing brunt

Meanwhile, UN humanitarians have issued new data confirming the war’s major, negative impact on women and girls sheltering in Rafah.

According to UN Women, more than nine in 10 women interviewed in the southernmost governorate reported feelings of indescribable fear, while over half said they had medical conditions needing urgent attention.

“Women and girls in Rafah, as in the rest of Gaza, are in a state of constant despair and fear already,” the UN agency said, adding that an Israeli ground invasion would have caused further suffering among Rafah’s 700,000 women and girls who have “nowhere to go to escape the bombing and killing”.

Seven months since Israeli strikes began in response to Hamas-led terror attacks, more than 10,000 women have been reportedly killed in Gaza, among them 6,000 mothers. Some 19,000 children have been orphaned, UN Women said.

The UN agency’s survey of 360 respondents, including 182 women in Rafah, revealed disturbing data that more than six in 10 pregnant women reported complications, including 95 per cent with urinary tract infections and 80 per cent with anaemia. In households with nursing mothers, 72 per cent reported challenges in breastfeeding and in meeting the nutritional needs of their babies.

Compounding pressures

The UN agency data indicated that mothers also reported struggling to protect their children, both physically and mentally, while living in tents and overcrowded households. 

According to eight in 10 of the survey’s female and male respondents, mothers now take on more responsibility than men to provide emotional support for adult family members and children alike.

The current situation has reached an “unprecedented emergency level”, he said, and the most recent evacuation order by Israel has forced tens of thousands to flee.

As part of the contingency effort, WHO and partners have been establishing field hospitals and supporting restoration of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which will be used as a main referral hospital and with the aim of re-establishing basic health services. 

“We have installed a large warehouse in Deir Al Balah and we moved the majority of supplies to ensure rapid access and movement of supplies to Khan Younis, Middle Area and north Gaza,” he added. 

Hospitals already ‘overloaded’

There are currently three hospitals operating in Rafah, including the Emirati Maternity Hospital, and over the past weeks WHO has been ensuring that they are fully prepared and supported in terms of medical supplies. 

Dr. Dahir said the hospitals are already “overloaded with patients” and recent developments have affected access. He cited the example of Al-Najjar Hospital, which provides dialysis services for more than 100 patients. 

“Unfortunately, the hospital is among the blocks which were ordered by the Israeli Government for evacuation, so patients are afraid to seek services,” he said. 

“We are also hearing that there are many patients who are being admitted in this hospital who start to move from the hospital.”

He emphasized that WHO has always advocated for hospitals to be protected. 

“We have set clear mechanisms for a referral pathway between the hospitals and in case that hospitals will not be accessed, what are the other alternatives? And that’s why we have been supporting the restoration of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.” 

Asked about the situation of pregnant women and newborns, Dr. Dahir noted that the Emirati Maternity Hospital is one of the key facilities of its kind across Gaza, delivering more than 100 babies each month.

“We have been ensuring that the hospital is fully occupied. And in case we lose accessibility, then we will be able to refer pregnant mothers, for instance, to field hospitals in Al Mawasi area as well as the Nasser Medical Complex,” he said.   

Fuel running out 

Meanwhile, fuel critical for humanitarian operations in Gaza could run out “tomorrow” and some food stocks might only last to the end of the week, a senior UN aid official in the region said on Tuesday. 

Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, in the occupied Palestinian territories, said the closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt has severed access to fuel, affecting the entry of critical relief items and curtailing the movement of aid workers. 

Speaking from Jerusalem, Mr. De Domenico said lack of fuel is a particular concern as humanitarians have just around 30,000 litres of diesel available when they normally use 200,000 litres a day. 

Priority is being given to health, water and communication, with some fuel set aside as contingency for the secure movement of staff.  

“That will leave us basically with no fuel as of tomorrow,” he said. 

“The Israelis have provided assurances that they are working out a way to bring in more fuel and they are hoping to be able to organize this tomorrow. We will see,” he added, noting that distribution will also be a challenge “if Rafah is caught in the middle of the military operation”. 

Communication networks affected 

Mr. De Domenico explained that communication companies are unable to receive the daily quantities of fuel required to sustain their networks. 

“This means that as of a couple of days, people will not have access to information, we will not be able to gather information for people to understand their needs, and families will not be able to connect during displacement if they get separated”. 

He recalled that over 75 per cent of the Gaza population has been displaced and “may now have no option but to remain in an ever-decreasing area of land”.

Lack of shelter

People are moving to sites that do not have latrines, water points, proper drainage, or shelter. 

“It is impossible to improve the situation in the existing and the new displacement sites without the entry of supplies and without the fuel to transport them to the locations where the people are concentrating,” he said. 

Meanwhile, aid partners working in the shelter sector only have some 1,500 tents. He said lack of tents combined with the high percentage of damaged or destroyed homes in Gaza, means that displaced people leaving Rafah are forced to find other shelter options. 

“They need shelter materials such as tarpaulins, ropes, plastic shelter, nails, and those tools are simply not available in in Gaza. And without the humanitarian assistance that will bring those in, we will not be able to support them.” 

Food stocks dwindling 

Additionally, most food distributions in the south have been suspended since Monday as many warehouses are in the part of Rafah that has been affected by hostilities.  Furthermore, he estimated that most aid partners could run out of food to support people south of Wadi Gaza by the end of the week. 

Humanitarians are also running out of fuel to dispatch remaining commodities for distribution to households and to 16 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP). 

The embattled health sector also will be impacted if military operations continue, as the three remaining hospitals in Rafah will become inoperable, depriving 1.2 million people of care. 

Water and waste management 

Mr. De Domenico further warned that “without fuel tomorrow, the main water production will be shut down in the north, depriving the entire population of access to drinking water.” 

The same would apply in the south and middle governorates in the coming days, affecting 1.9 million people. 

There is also the “huge issue” of solid waste collection, which also relies on fuel supply, and collection points in the south have already been reduced.   

“We estimated there will be a production of 1,400 tonnes of waste per day that will accumulate in the streets all over. And this was already a big challenge because also we do not have access yet to the landfill where we could deliver and drop all the garbage,” he said. 

He added that the sewage pumping station in East Rafah has already stopped working due to the military operation, impacting 80,000 people. 

Concern for unaccompanied children 

UN agencies on Tuesday highlighted the plight of women and girls, as well as children, and Mr. De Domenico also focused on the issue of unaccompanied and separated minors. 

He said their numbers “will rapidly increase while our ability to provide them basic support will be heavily reduced if the situation in Rafah evolves with a further military operation.