hundreds of millions of dollars. and yet, the international community seems to have aid fatigue about haiti and is yet to step up to really try to provide this country with even the basics of life right now. paula newton, cnn, lakai, haiti. joining me now is jacqueline charles, caribbean correspondent for the miami herald. thanks so much for being here with us. so as we just heard, kidnappings, killings, sexual violence are on the rise. haiti seems on the brink. how precarious is the situation right now? well, the situation is precarious. we saw a little bit of as r respite, just about a month or two ago after some vigilante killings. what happened, the population was taking this shall of security into their own hands. they were blocking off roads, they were actually hunting down alleged, you know, gang members and the united nations put out some statistics on how many
just absolutely horrific. the u.n. security council has asked the secretary general to come up with solutions including a possible deployment, many in the country say that s just a band-aid, and of course, they sort of are reluctant to see foreign soldiers, because they re seen as having caused more problems than they ve solved in the past. do you get a sense that more boots on the ground is what s needed here? this issue, of course, is very controversial on who you ve asked. i ve seen polling that haitians want help. they recognize to the haitian national police is just 3,300 people on public safety duty in a country of 12 million. they can t do it on their own. the polls show that the not the politicians, the folks who are having to live with this insecurity and the gang violence, who cannot get out of their neighborhoods or get their kids to school. they are asking for help and they want help from the outside. in the meantime, the u.n. is promising more policing support,
issues. then it is much easier for the rest of the world to get onboard. reporter: but with both countries still heavily reliant on fossil fuels and facing economic pressure at home, any progress is likely to be an uphill battle. anna coren, cnn, hong kong. coming up here on cnn musem newsroom, after two years of escalating gang violence in haiti, the united states is calling for international help. that s coming up. please do stay with us.
combat gangs. reporter: it s now been two years since the assassination of haiti s leader has plunged this country into even more chaos. the united nations says what is going on now is unprecedented in haiti s history. what is happening is that armed gangs have not only taken over the capital with their violence and brutality, but it is having an impact right across the country. we are here in southwestern haiti, in lakai, and even here, what is happening in port-au-prince can be felt, first and foremost economically. remember that haiti already has one of the highest incidences, rates of food insecurity in the world and now because of the control that those gangs have in port-au-prince, aid groups tell us that the situation is worsening even here. not just with food insecurity, but also with the threat that that kind of violence, the violence that is already a
people, you know, has been killed in these vigilante killings, saying this is not the way to go. but i just recently came from haiti not long ago. and what you started to see is indeed, kidnappings have returned. we re starting to hear more about, you know, incidents of violence. and so there is concern that we are now going right back to where we were just a couple of months ago. that s sad to hear. the problem, of course, is those rampant gangs now control close to 80% of port-au-prince, which means many people zpdisplaced. they can t move around, they don t have food or access to medical care. how are haitians coping? haitians are coping in a very difficult situation. i just wrote this story this week, there s an american priest that s been working with the leaders of four very powerful gangs and he s gotten them to call a truce. so these gangs have basically