By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 24 2025 – As gang violence in Haiti continues to target civilians and critical infrastructures, humanitarian organizations and the Haitian National Police (HNP) have found it increasingly difficult to manage the growing scale of needs. The United Nations (UN) and its partners fear that Haiti will approach a nationwide collapse due to numerous shortfalls in funding, a widespread lack of essential resources, and rampant insecurity.

On April 21, UN Special Representative María Isabel Salvador briefed spoke before the Security Council on the “deliberate and coordinated” campaign being used by armed coalitions to expand control in the nation’s capital, Port-Au-Prince.

“They targeted Kenscoff, the last road out of Port-au-Prince not fully under gang control, and advanced simultaneously into Delmas, downtown Port-au-Prince, and Pétion-Ville—areas previously spared—deepening the city’s destabilization,” said Salvador.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), approximately 90 percent of Port-Au-Prince is controlled by gangs, with only 10 percent remaining under governmental jurisdiction. From late January to early March 2025, roughly 262 people were killed and 66 were injured in Kenscoff and Carrefour, two communes in the capital’s south. In late March and early April, over 80 people were killed in Mirebalais and Saut-d’Eau.

“The magnitude of the violence has sown panic among the population,” said Salvador. “We are approaching a point of no return. Without timely and decisive international support, the violence will continue to escalate, and Haiti could face total collapse.”

Additionally, sexual violence propagated by gang members remains pervasive in Haiti, particularly in Port-Au-Prince. Executions and kidnappings are also regular occurrences that are reported on almost daily, according to HRW. Increased rates of child recruitment have become alarmingly apparent as over 50 percent of gang personnel are young children.

As a result of escalating gang violence, many civilians and law enforcement personnel have formed “self defense groups” in the objective of quelling insecurity in collusion. This has led to brutal clashes between these self defense groups and gang members which has only increased the overall insecurity and exacerbated rates of displacement. According to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 90,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since January 2025.

“People no longer have a safe place to flee to,” one aid worker told HRW. “Women who come here seeking help have not only lost loved ones, but have also been raped, displaced and left on the streets, starving and struggling to survive. We don’t know how much longer they can endure such suffering … All [victims] ask is for the violence to stop. With no support from the police or government, they feel abandoned. They ask, ‘Why is no one helping us? Why do Haitian lives not matter if we are human too?’”

Essential services, such as healthcare, education, and access to safe food and water, are critically limited as security issues impede mobility and gaps in funding widen. The UN reports that over 900 schools and 39 medical facilities have shut down due to gang activity. Shelter, sanitation, and protection services are lacking significantly in displacement camps. With cholera outbreaks and rates of gender-based violence spreading rapidly in the most crisis-affected areas of the nation, it is imperative for the international community and humanitarian organizations to scale up their responses.

Port-Au-Prince’s St. Damien Hospital is the only pediatric hospital in Haiti that offers full-scale services, assisting families with childhood cancer treatments, maternal care, and a host of other health issues, acting as a lifeline for Haitian communities near the capital. However, funding shortfalls and increased insecurity have complicated life-saving efforts.

“Solidarity knows no borders. If people outside help us, it means we are not alone in facing these challenges,” said Dr. Pascale Gassant of the St. Damien Hospital. “We are determined. Every day, we risk our lives. But we need help…Despite the insecurity, we must continue our mission for children and mothers.”

According to the latest food security situation update from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), roughly 5.7 million people, which is more than half of Haiti’s population, are projected to face “high levels” of acute food insecurity through June. Of this 5.7 million, over 2 million are projected to experience emergency level hunger (IPC Phase 4) and 8,400 people living within displacement shelters are projected to face catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5).

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the hunger crisis is expected to hit children particularly hard, with roughly 2.85 million children, or 25 percent of the entire child population, facing high levels of food insecurity and acute malnutrition.

“We are looking at a scenario where parents can no longer provide care and nutrition to their children as a result of ongoing violence, extreme poverty, and a persistent economic crisis,” said Geeta Narayan, UNICEF’s Representative in Haiti. “Life-saving actions, such as screening children at risk for wasting and stunting, and ensuring malnourished children have access to therapeutic treatment, are needed now to save children’s lives.”

Many humanitarian organizations have agreed that the window to tackle the crisis in Haiti is closing. With the Kenyan-led contingency mission of 1,000 police officers having failed to protect civilians and dispose of gang members, it has become apparent that it will require much more funding and personnel to achieve progress.

According to the International Crisis Group, major gaps in the Haitian governmental structure have allowed for gangs to take power. Since these gangs have taken advantage of rampant political instability that has persisted in Haiti for decades, it is imperative for the Haitian Transitional Government to focus on handling responsible governance, violence, impunity, and corruption, rather than “rushing toward elections.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Varkala is an area with unique geological and geomorphological heritage. But its fragile cliffs are also affected by severe weather and high waves during the monsoon season. Activists say rampant and illegal tourist infrastructure and climate change are putting this dramatic landscape at risk.

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Apr 24 2025 – The ongoing civil war in Sudan is tragic, but the greater tragedy is that if the international community sits on its hands and does nothing to stop this horrific war and prevent further escalation of the conflict, it will come at an unfathomable price

The human toll of Sudan’s civil war, now in its third year, has reached catastrophic proportions, with widespread carnage and violence against civilians. As of November 2024, 28,700 people have been killed. Over 12 million have been internally displaced as of April 2025, and 3.3 million fled to neighboring countries – Chad, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. In Chad alone, 90 percent of Sudanese refugees are women and children.

The Sudan civil war, which was reignited in 2023, stems from decades of ethnic, religious, and political tensions and historical grievances, compounded by a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Following the ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, SAF leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Gen. Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo formed a transitional government but clashed over integrating the RSF into the SAF and transitioning to civilian rule. The RSF’s refusal to submit to SAF authority and disputes over control of resources, especially gold, escalated into an open war in April 2023.

Renewed fighting in Sudan’s North Darfur has forced hundreds of thousands of already displaced people to flee once again in search of safety. 20 April 2025. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Jamal

Sudan’s colonial legacy created arbitrary borders that ignored ethnic and cultural divisions, leading to the marginalization of non-Arab regions like Darfur and South Sudan. Post-independence governments in Khartoum imposed Islamic law (Sharia) on non-Muslim populations, fueling deep resentment.

Moreover, economic inequalities existed between the predominantly Arab and Muslim Northern elites, who historically controlled wealth and resources, and the African Animist and Christian Southern and Western regions, which faced the plunder of their resources and neglect over the years.

Oil-rich areas like Darfur and Kordofan became a breaking point over equitable resource distribution and the absence of transparency in distributing revenues generated from the sale of gold and oil.

The SAF wants to retain control of the Sudanese state and military apparatus and has resisted RSF demands for autonomy or power-sharing, viewing it as a rogue paramilitary. The RSF, which grew from and is predominantly comprised of members of the notorious Janjaweed militia, seeks to secure political legitimacy, institutionalize its influence through a parallel government, and retain control over lucrative resource-rich territories.

Regardless of the historic account and the decades-long grievances, the atrocities being perpetrated against innocent civilians, especially women and children, defy human consciousness to the core.

Human rights abuses

The non-Arab communities have systematically been targeted by the RSF and allied militias, duplicating tactics from the 2003 genocide. The RSF committed egregious crimes against humanity, manifested by widespread sexual violence, looting, destruction of civilian infrastructure, extrajudicial killings, sex trafficking, and intimate partner violence, particularly in Darfur.

Between April 2023 and October 2024, there were 119 verified attacks on health facilities, leaving 80 percent of hospitals in conflict zones non-operational. Zamzam, Sudan’s largest refugee camp, located in Darfur, was bombarded by the RSF for months, with at least 300 killed between Zamzam and Abu Shouk, a nearby camp.

Both parties have committed massacres and executions, targeting civilians. In January, members of the SAF executed at least 18 people in Khartoum, mostly individuals from Darfur or Kordofan, and a video circulated depicts SAF members reading a list of alleged RSF collaborators, stating “killed” after each name.

UN High Commissioner Volker Türk emphasized that such acts are war crimes and must never be normalized. “Deliberately taking the life of a civilian or anyone not or no longer directly taking part in hostilities is a war crime,” said Türk.

Nothing can justify or explain the day-in and day-out atrocities that send shocking shivers down the spine of every decent human being.

Over 30 million people in Sudan are in need of humanitarian assistance, more than 15 million of whom are children; at least 635,000 Sudanese are experiencing famine. The Trump administration’s cuts to aid have been, as Norwegian Refugee Council head Jan Egeland described, a “moral failure.”

Over 300 soup kitchens which received US funds were forced to close within days of USAID’s dismantlement. Disease runs rampant, with 3.4 million children at risk of epidemic disease.

As the UN Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict reported in December 2024, both the SAF and RSF forcibly recruit minors as young as seven, including in combat roles. These findings are corroborated by the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Children are also suffering the deepest violation of sexual violence, with 221 reports of rape against children recorded in 2024.

International failures

The international community’s failure to curb arms flows or enforce ceasefires has exacerbated suffering, leaving Sudan’s civilians trapped in what the UN calls “the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”

Both sides are entrenched, with external backers. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) backs the RSF, while Egypt supports the SAF, which prolongs the conflict. These divisions led to the failure of the peace talks in Jeddah in late 2023 because of mutual distrust and competing regional interests. The SAF and RSF may end up establishing de facto partitioned states, which would further entrench the conflict.

Prospects for a Solution

The international community must act now to stop the fighting and save the lives of countless people who have been victimized by two corrupt warring generals whose lust for power far supersedes the lives of the multitudes, especially women and children, who are killed, displaced, and dying from starvation.

On April 15, the UK, Germany, France, the African Union and the European Union co-hosted the London Sudan Conference, bringing together foreign ministers and high-level representatives to find a resolution to the war. The participating nations have correctly called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to external interference, and a renewed commitment to Sudan’s unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

They also emphasized the importance of negotiating a settlement leading to a civilian-led government, emphasized the need to protect civilians and coordinate international humanitarian assistance, and firmly rejected any effort to establish parallel governments or to partition the country.

Although their statements are well-meaning and necessary, they fall far short of what must be done immediately to end the unspeakable carnage and destruction. Indeed, disagreement between key Arab states, especially those that have intervened on opposite sides of the conflict, and the co-chairs prevented any further consensus on ending the war.

Sadly, the conference may turn out to be nothing but another round of aimless speeches unless concrete actions are taken without delay. The UK, France, Germany, and the UN must lead to end the war by taking and enforcing the following measures.

Establishing a transitional government: A long-term, mutually acceptable political solution is needed to prevent future wars that have plagued Sudan for decades. To that end, the formation of a civilian government is critical to insulate it from military dominance, while granting autonomy to regions like Darfur, which require compromises and security integration between the RSF and the SAF armies under a single command.

Deploying an international peacekeeping force

The UK, France, and Germany must sponsor a resolution mandating an UN peacekeeping force comprising African Union states along with the UK, France, and Germany playing a supervisory and training role to protect civilians, deter attacks on non-combatants, secure humanitarian corridors, monitor ceasefire violations, and enforce compliance.

They should impose comprehensive arms embargoes and sanctions on the countries supplying weapons—the UAE, Egypt and Turkey—while enlisting other countries to exert international pressure. They must leverage their aid to demand unconstrained humanitarian access, including allowing cross-line aid delivery while supporting local responders to emergencies.

They need to ensure that any peace process includes civil society groups, funds grassroots organizations, and supports independent media to counter disinformation and hate speech.
They ought to provide unified technical and financial assistance to help implement any mediated peace agreement.

The Sudanese people have endured indescribably torturous death, destruction, displacement, and disease. The mediators must remember that history will repeat itself unless the agreement between the warring parties addresses Sudan’s foundational divides, inequality, and ethnic disparities, not just silencing guns.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Maina Waruru
NAIROBI, Apr 24 2025 – The majority of African countries are yet to commit 15 percent of their GDP to funding the health sector, despite the growing disease burden weighing down the continent and two decades after the coming into force of the Abuja declaration on health sector funding.

Only a few countries, including Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde, have consistently met the 15 percent target, with some countries allocating less than 10 percent of their budget to the crucial sector.

Under the Abuja Declaration of 2001, African Union (AU) member states made a commitment to end the continent’s health financing crisis, pledging to allocate at least 15 percent of national budgets to the sector. However, more than two decades later, only three countries—Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde—have consistently met or exceeded this target (WHO, 2023). In contrast, over 30 AU member states remain well below the 10 percent benchmark, with some allocating as little as 5–7 percent of their national budgets to health.

Countries including Nigeria, Chad, and the Central African Republic are allocating as little as 5–7 percent to the sector, thanks to a myriad of political and economic challenges, including a high debt burden and narrow tax base, according to Director General of Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC), Dr. Jean Kaseya.

Competing demands for security and infrastructure financing and limited coordination between ministries of health and finance, plus the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic “hit national budgets hard,” worsened by global economic instability, haven’t helped matters, he said, while commenting on the latest annual report of the continental health body and the 2025 concept paper on Africa’s Health Financing in a New Era, both released in April.

Wivine M’puranyi, a 30-year-old mother of six from the village of Karanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu, reflects on the distressing days when her two daughters were diagnosed with mpox, one of the pandemics that hit Africa in 2024. Credit: WHO

“It also exposes just how costly underinvesting in health can be. The real story here is political will, where leaders prioritize health, and budgets follow,” he noted.

The report finds that only 16-29 percent of African countries currently have updated versions of the National Health Development Plan (NHDP) supported by a National Health Financing Plan (NHFP), the two documents being critical in driving internal resource mobilization.

“Updating National Health Development Plans (NHDPs) and National Health Financing Plans (NHFPs) is not just a matter of paperwork—it’s a heavy lift. Countries need robust data, skilled teams, funding, and strong inter-ministerial coordination,” he said.

Low funding has a consequence: it has led to many health departments being understaffed and overstretched, partly because some governments ‘deprioritize’ updating the two documents because they fear the plans won’t be implemented or be funded. “But without current, credible plans, it’s nearly impossible to make a case for more domestic or external investment. These documents are not bureaucratic checkboxes—they’re investment blueprints,” the DG told IPS.

He noted that countries that have updated and actively used their NHDPs and NHFPs have seen tangible benefits, one such country being Burkina Faso, where an updated NHFP had helped streamline funding and implementation for free healthcare policy.

In Senegal, incorporating macroeconomic forecasting into the NHFP improved budget predictability and donor alignment. “These tools are powerful when they are costly, realistic, and regularly monitored. But let’s be clear; plans must be funded and used—not just filed away—to make a real difference,” Kaseya added.

According to the documents, Africa continues to carry a disproportionate share of the global disease burden—25 percent—but with only 3 percent of the global health workforce, resulting in a “dangerously overstretched workforce,” according to the documents. Should this shortage be prioritized over all other health needs and deficiencies, or what should be addressed first?

The shortage of health workers remains a fundamental challenge, with Africa carrying 25 percent of the global disease burden but a disproportionate 3 percent of the global health workforce—a challenge that cannot be addressed “in isolation.”

Likobiso Posholi, 35, from Ha Sechele village in Mohale’s Hoek in Lesotho, recovering from a recent cesarean section. Many countries in Africa are yet to commit 15 percent of the national budgets so that women like Posholi can access affordable maternity services. Credit: WHO

However, recruiting en masse without sustainable financing or strategic deployment can strain the system, and in some countries, trained professionals remain unemployed due to fiscal constraints or wage bill ceilings. “Kenya, for example, is piloting co-financing mechanisms between national and local governments to overcome this. The key is to tackle workforce gaps through integrated, context-specific reforms that link financing, recruitment, and health system needs,” Kaseya said.

The Africa CDC has drafted a three-pronged strategy and placed it at the forefront of a health financing revolution that could potentially represent a paradigm shift from dependency to self-determination. Some aspects of the strategy can be implemented immediately without being subjected to a lot of bureaucracy in view of the emergency brought about by cuts in Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), he added.

Reductions in ODA went down by 70 percent between 2021 and 2025, exposing health systems to deep-rooted structural vulnerabilities and placing immense pressure on Africa’s already fragile health systems, with overseas financing being seen as the backbone of critical health programmes.

These include pandemic preparedness, maternal and child health services, and disease control initiatives, all of which are at risk, threatening Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Universal Health Coverage.

“Some components of our strategy can be rapidly deployed. Health taxes on products like tobacco, sugar, and alcohol are politically sensitive but technically straightforward and yield dual benefits, generating revenue and promoting healthier populations. Strengthening health financing units within ministries is a high-impact, low-cost intervention that can dramatically improve budget execution and efficiency,” Kaseya suggested.

Likewise, deploying digital tools—such as real-time dashboards to track financing flows—can happen quickly and with limited bureaucracy. Countries like Benin, South Africa, and Ethiopia are already implementing such reforms with measurable progress.

He pitched that digitization of the health sector is no longer a luxury, as it is foundational to the much-needed resilient, transparent, and efficient health systems.

On the other hand, the platforms improve decision-making, enable better resource tracking, and enhance service delivery. However, fragmentation of digital solutions remains a challenge, with many platforms developed in ‘silos,’ often “donor-driven and poorly integrated,” he commented.

He singled out Ghana, which offered a strong example of progress, having developed a national platform that integrates health and financing data. “The true value of digitization is realized when countries lead the process, ensure interoperability, and embed digital solutions into broader system reforms,” Kaseya said.

On the positive side, CDC Africa for the first time led an emergency response, putting in place a Joint Continental Incidence Management Support Team (IMST) co-led with the World Health Organization and bringing together over 28 partners to collaborate on the Mpox response. This work was done under the “One team with a One unified plan, One budget, and One monitoring framework.”

“This is a historic first that marked a significant milestone in Africa’s leadership of public health emergencies of continental significance,” the report observed.

It further supported national responses to “multiple major public health emergencies,” including the mpox outbreak in 20 AU member states and the Marburg virus disease outbreak in Rwanda. This was in declaring the former a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) on August 13, 2024, in consultation with the affected countries and relevant stakeholders.

Also on the positive side, the continental health body was advancing a comprehensive three-pillar strategy centered on domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing, and blended finance.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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