Edem Wosornu, OCHA’s Operations and Advocacy Director, arrived in Haiti for a four-day visit, together with Lucia Elmi, UNICEF’s Emergency Director; and Andrea Koulaimah, Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and Pacific in the European Commission's Directorate General for civil protection and humanitarian aid operations.
During their stay, they will meet with Haitian authorities and national, international and local partners to discuss the humanitarian crisis in the country as well as strategies beyond emergency aid.
The delegation will also meet with affected communities and visit several humanitarian aid project sites.
The visit comes at a time when Haiti is experiencing a multidimensional humanitarian crisis, which has only worsened since March this year amid renewed violence in the capital Port-au-Prince.
More than 578,000 people are currently displaced in Haiti, and more than 1,000 schools have been closed or seen classes disrupted since January. Meanwhile, about 40 per cent of health-care facilities across Port-au-Prince are closed.
