News this week that armed gangs have tightened their grip on Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was akin to a blow delivered by a heavyweight boxer to the gut of a lighter and much weaker opponent. It has the potential to totally cripple a country with a proud history of independence hard won from colonial powers more than 200 years ago.

The latest update from the United Nations (UN) on the conditions in Haiti is enough, we believe, to trigger greater concern in the international community and a firm commitment to reversing the atrocities taking place.

Mr Miroslav Jenca, the UN assistant secretary general for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, told a UN Security Council meeting this week that the agency has continued to witness a sharp erosion of State authority and the rule of law.

“Brutal gang violence affects every aspect of public and private life,” he said, adding that the Haitian police and the Kenya-led multinational support mission have, despite their best efforts, been unable to make headway in restoring State authority.

Then came the heartbreaking analysis from Mr Jenca: “Without increased action by the international community, the total collapse of State presence in the capital could become a very real scenario.”

The likelihood of that happening is not far-fetched, given the following further update from Mr Jenca’s colleague, Ms Ghada Waly, director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, that the gangs “are establishing parallel governance structures and providing rudimentary public services”.

That, as was reported by wire service news agencies, demonstrates that the gangs are stepping into the void created by the State’s rapidly shrinking ability to govern.

If all that were not enough, Ms Waly also reported that there are “new allegations of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal”.

Last September, the then prime minister of Haiti, Mr Garry Conille, issued an urgent appeal for help to the international community.

“If we fail, it will not only be Haiti that will sink, but the entire region that will bear the scars,” he told the UN Economic and Social Council Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti in New York.

Mr Conille also urged the international community to act now and keep its commitments to Haiti, because “the Haitian crisis, in its security, humanitarian, social, economic, and political components, has been largely underestimated”.

Anyone who has been keeping abreast of happenings in Haiti would have seen the latest development coming, especially given the weak response of the international community, even after being told by UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed that the activities of the criminals are “deliberate efforts to erode State authority, sow chaos, and make it easier to prey on vulnerable communities”.

Mr Mohammed, we recall, told that UN Economic and Social Council Ad Hoc Advisory Group: “Breaking the cycle of violence requires both political solutions and security measures — in parallel.”

He was spot on.

We have, in this space, shared the view advanced by many that any solution to the crisis must be very respectful of Haiti’s sovereignty and therefore needs to be led and managed by the Haitian people.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that when people are being held hostage by armed barbarians their only escape lies in assistance from allies with the ability to effectively counter the savagery they are experiencing.

The international community has a tough decision to make.