UNITED NATIONS (CMC) — The United Nations (UN) Tuesday expressed continued concern at the number of families being displaced in the Haitian capital of Port au Prince due to the ongoing violence and criminal activities in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country.

Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told the daily media briefing that the latest clashes between armed groups in the neighbourhoods of Cité Soleil and Delmas displaced more than 2,000 people last week and “that is just in two days between September 11 and 13”.

“More than 170,000 people are now displaced in the capital. While most of them are staying with host families, three new temporary sites have sprung up,” Dujarric told reporters, adding “we and our partners in Haiti continue to support people in need across the country, including by providing food, water and sanitation, as well as health care support”.

He said that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) also continues to distribute blankets, solar lamps and kitchen kits to displaced people and that with the new school year approaching, the World Food Programme (WFP) plans to provide school meals to 495,000 children.

Dujarric said many of these meals will be sourced from local smallholder farmers.

The UN said that the US$674 million Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti is currently only 39 per cent funded with US$263 million actually received.

“We continue to call for increased support for the humanitarian response to help the Haitian people,” Dujarric said.

Over the past several months, more than 380 Kenyan personnel have arrived in the country to support the Haitian National Police (NPH) in a United Nations sanctioned Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to restore peace and security and dealing with criminal gangs and other undesirables.