PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, urging the international community to “stop looking away” and stand with the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country.

“I have just arrived in Port-au-Prince on a solidarity visit with the people of Haiti. The humanitarian situation here is desperate, but there are faint glimmers of hope,” Guterres posted on his Instagram page.

“My message to the international community: Stop looking away. We must stand with Haiti,” he added.

Guterres, who last travelled to the troubled Caribbean country in July 2023, will meet with men, women and children whose lives have been affected by the violence, according to his office.

He arrived here by helicopter from the Dominican Republic and is expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé who is confident that efforts Haiti could be staging elections later this year.

The last time Haitians voted someone into power was in 2016. Since then, armed gangs have seized control of almost the entire capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as large swathes of rural areas of Haiti.

On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said that 2, 300 people have been killed in Haiti due to gang violence since the start of this year.

Addressing the opening of the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, Turk told delegates from the 47-country council that nearly 100 others have been kidnapped in the country.

“In Haiti, gang violence has resulted in at least 2,300 deaths, 1,100 injuries and 99 kidnappings since the start of the year. The Gang Suppression Force (GSF) is urgently needed and needs to operate in line with international human rights law,” Turk said.

Late last year, the UN Security Council gave the green ight for the GSF, a multinational police and military force to combat escalating gang violence in Haiti. With a mandated troop size of up to 5,500, it replaces the previously under-resourced Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.

Turk called on authorities to tackle the rampant crime situation in Haiti with a population of 12 million people and one of the poorest country in the America.