“The human conditions are terrible from a health and sanitation perspective,” says Ulrika Richardson, the UN coordinator who is in Haiti, to the radio.
About 40 percent of those affected by the disease in the country are children under the age of four, she says further.
At the same time, the crisis is compounded by criminal gangs blocking Haiti’s main fuel import terminal, which they have been doing since last summer. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on members of the Security Council to send an international force to restore order.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and suffers from both famine and gang violence.