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STORY: UN / HAITI HUMANITARIAN PRESSER
TRT: 06:48
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: CREDIT OCHA FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN headquarters
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“I think we all know it, but maybe a few stark reminders of the situation in Haiti facing one of the most severe and rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crises in the Western Hemisphere. I'd like to stress that 6.4 million people, over half the population of some 11.9 to 12 million people, now in need of humanitarian assistance. 5.7 million people are acutely food insecure in Haiti, with families skipping meals, children leaving school to help their households, and schools occupied by internally displaced people. So that's the first sort of stark perspective. We are asking for 880 million dollars for 4.2 million people as the humanitarian community, within that 680 million dollars for the hyper-prioritized plan, which will help some 3.3 million people. Let's not forget, dear media, we only received 27 percent of what we asked for last year.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, LABITRIE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
4. Various shots, displaced families
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“Now, of course, you hear us talk about it a lot: a protection crisis, a deepening protection crisis, marked by insecurity, relentless violence, mass displacement and shocking levels of gender-based violence. I'll delve into what I saw and heard firsthand during my days on the ground. 1.45 million people displaced. That is 12 percent of the population. Significant.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, LABITRIE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
6. Various shots, displaced families
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“These are not abstract figures, as you know. You know this well - these represent families, uprooted families, displaced, separated children, many who've lost their homes where they knew. You see, those of you who know Haiti - they take their schooling very seriously. Amidst all of this picture, a motorbike with 3 or 4 kids riding, going to school with bows in their hair, and children dressed up to the nines, going to school in a background that is quite shocking. Civil protection a bit awry, filthy streets. But these children on their way to school - very important. And they will never leave me.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRE, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
8. Various shots, women and children
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“Violence in Port-au-Prince. 90 percent of Port-au-Prince under gang control. A constriction of everything - can you imagine, people moving to only 10 percent of what is left to move to. So, people on top of each other, very, very horrifying to see. Escalating violence, new waves of killings, devastating reports that 80 people killed - I think a couple of weeks after my location in Cité Soleil that I visited - 13,000 in the last few days displaced.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, LABITRIE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
10. Various shots, displaced families
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“I met families. I went to many ‘seats’- we call ‘seats,’ locations where people are being hosted, displaced people being hosted. 2,800 in one school that usually hosts 400 children. Where I was walking is where people said, "We sleep here at night." They described at night: vermin, roaches coming out, rashes on skin of children, people showing you things that they said, "In our homes we were fine, and here we are displaced" - the very ground I was walking on, the very place people were sleeping on at night.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, LABITRIE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
12. Various shots, Edem Wosornu visiting the shelter
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“1,600 schools remain closed due to insecurity across the country, affecting a quarter of a million children in Haiti. As I described to you, those children in their boats - with their bows in their hair, the boys with their socks up, ready to go to school. School means a lot for the people of Haiti. So, 1,600 schools closed, 250,000 children missing education - is a big, huge deal.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, LABITRIE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
14. Various shots, displaced families
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“Last year, 8,100 survivors of gender-based violence were recorded, a 25 percent increase from the year before. Half of the reported cases involved rape. I spoke with some of the women. You can see - having done this for 20, almost 25 years - you can see the glazed-over eyes, the trauma. And there were many women in the crowds, in the sites, with that trauma on their face. 1 in 6 survivors under 18.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, LABITRIE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
16. Various shots, Edem Wosornu visiting the shelter
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRE, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
17. Various shots, Edem Wosornu interacting with women
10 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division:
“Humanitarian assistance alone cannot change the fate of the people of Haiti and the trajectory of Haiti. Political solutions - you know that - improved security, urgent, sustained investment in essential services can create solutions for the people. Haiti's courage undeniable. Our support ever so necessary.”
CREDIT OCHA – 17 MARCH 2026, COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRE, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
19. Various shots, displaced families
“The very ground I was walking on, the very place people were sleeping on at night,” the UN's top humanitarian official said Friday, describing conditions inside overcrowded displacement shelters in Haiti as she warned the country is facing one of the most severe and rapidly deteriorating crises in the Western Hemisphere.
Edem Wosornu, Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division, said more than half the country's population now in need of assistance and donors having funded just a fraction of last year's appeal.
"We only received 27 percent of what we asked for last year," Wosornu said at a press briefing at UN headquarters in New York today (10 Apr), calling on the international community to meet an 880 million dollars appeal for 2026.
Wosornu said 6.4 million people - over half of Haiti's population of roughly 11.9 to 12 million - are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 5.7 million acutely food insecure. The humanitarian community is seeking 880 million dollars to reach 4.2 million people, including a hyper-prioritized 680 million dollars plan targeting 3.3 million people.
She described Haiti as gripped by a deepening protection crisis driven by gang violence, mass displacement and widespread gender-based violence. Ninety percent of Port-au-Prince is under gang control, she said, leaving residents confined to the remaining ten percent of the city.
Wosornu also said 1.45 million people - 12 percent of the population - are currently displaced, with 2,800 people sheltering in a school built for 400 in the Labitrie neighbourhood. She said residents told her directly where she was standing was where they slept at night, describing terrible living conditions. “Vermin, roaches coming out, rashes on skin of children, people showing you things that they said, "In our homes we were fine, and here we are displaced" - the very ground I was walking on, the very place people were sleeping on at night,” Wosornu shared.
The Director also said 1,600 schools across the country remain closed due to insecurity, leaving 250,000 children without access to education - a figure she called "a big, huge deal" in a country where schooling is deeply valued.
On gender-based violence, she said 8,100 survivors were recorded last year, a 25 percent increase from the prior year, with half of reported cases involving rape and one in six survivors under the age of 18.
Wosornu concluded, “Humanitarian assistance alone cannot change the fate of the people of Haiti and the trajectory of Haiti. Political solutions - you know that - improved security, urgent, sustained investment in essential services can create solutions for the people. Haiti's courage undeniable. Our support ever so necessary.”
