Open letter to the United Nations: Haitians need help now

Miami Herald

08-05-2025

The simmering conflict between gangs and the Haitian police last month boiled over into the streets of Kenscoff, a mountainous town southeast of Port-au-Prince known for its cool climate, vibrant agriculture and close-knit communities. Long a peaceful, highland retreat, Kenscoff is now the latest front in Haiti's escalating crisis.
Early on Sunday, April 20, gangs ambushed a police vehicle, killing four officers. Two wounded survivors were rushed to Fermathe Hospital, run by the Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM), which has served the region since 1955, providing not only medical care but a critical community lifeline.
I currently serve as president of BHM, where I oversee the hospital and our scholarship program, which this year is educating 32,000 children — mostly from poor, rural families with few other options for formal schooling.
By late Sunday morning, gunfire reached the BHM campus. I feared the gangs might set the facility on fire, as has happened at other hospitals. We are the only care center in the region and one of the few still functioning in the country.
With no other recourse, I turned to social media. I posted an open letter on X addressed to the Transitional Presidential Council, Haiti's de facto government. The post was widely reshared and, remarkably, helped spur action.
By Monday, the Haitian National Police had regained control of Fermathe and restored a fragile peace — at least for now.
That same Monday, the United Nations Security Council held its latest briefing on Haiti. Watching it felt like observing a roomful of doctors debate treatment options while a patient bleeds out on the table.
According to the UN's top official in Haiti, the country is nearing 'total chaos.' Yet Security Council members fell back on familiar talking points: the United States' expressed concern about the 'significant financial burden' of intervention, while China criticized U.S. failures to properly enforce an arms embargo.
It's striking how much the UN's past mistakes in Haiti — most notably the devastating cholera epidemic introduced by peacekeepers — have stifled its will to act. Rather than risk repeating errors, they've chosen to do nothing.
So they debate while Haiti burns. Meanwhile, more people die.
Sometimes I wonder whether the world simply doesn't understand how bad things have gotten, or if they've just stopped paying attention.
In the absence of law, gang atrocities have escalated beyond words. The horrors I've seen and heard defy expression. Every day of inaction allows further collapse — and makes future solutions more difficult and far more costly.
The time for discussion ended long ago. What Haiti needs now is action: The Security Council must authorize a new peacekeeping mission. At minimum, it should approve a UN Support Office to bolster the existing Multinational Security Support Mission.
At other times, I wonder if people do understand — but feel too overwhelmed to care. Maybe we've lost sight of what we're actually fighting for.
I'm calling for intervention because I want my students to go to school safely and to dream freely.
Despite decades of instability and a collapsed state, many Haitian children still make it to class. We could get more of them to school tomorrow — if the police had the support to push the gangs back.
Life continues, even in chaos.
Parents still wash and press their kids' uniforms. Older siblings guide younger ones across war-torn neighborhoods. Students still line up at the bell. They still say grace. They still wipe down their lunch tables. They still smile. They still hope.
They don't need a perfect UN mission. They don't need foreign saviors. They just need space to grow.
What Haiti's youth need is enough security to go to school, to work, to vote.
The United Nations was founded on a promise —to protect life despite conflict, to safeguard the vulnerable, to uphold human dignity.
It was a promise to protect children. To protect the future.
I still believe Haiti's children can rebuild their nation. The question is whether the world will help them do it.
Can the UN keep its promise?
Daniel Jean-Louis is president of the Baptist Haiti Mission.