Aug 28 (Reuters) – Nearly 200,000 people were forcibly returned to Haiti in the first eight months of this year, a U.N. official told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday, days after a brutal gang attack killed nearly 50 people in a town near the capital.
This represents at least 20,000 people more than in the same period of last year, acting assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Indrika Ratwatte told the meeting.
Ratwatte briefed the Security Council alongside Carlos Ruiz, the head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), who warned that without improved security, efforts to advance preparations for the country’s first elections in a decade remain “severely constrained and vulnerable to setbacks.”
Ruiz said three boys and two girls were among the 47 people killed in the hillside community of Kenscoff near the capital Port-au-Prince on Sunday night, where houses were set on fire and people who sought to escape were attacked inside a church.
“This latest heartbreaking episode is a stark reminder of the urgent need to further strengthen international security support for Haiti,” Ruiz said.
Diplomats deplored limited international action to prevent more gangs massacres and the attack showed the need to more rapidly scale up the deployment of the U.N.-backed multinational force mandated to help police fight gangs that have massively expanded their influence over the last five years.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland, Editing by Iñigo Alexander)
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