Laurent Saint-Cyr, head of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, saying that immediate action was needed because people were dying daily across Haiti. “Just a four-hour plane ride from here, a human tragedy is unfolding,” he said. “Every day, innocent lives are extinguished. ... Entire neighborhoods are disappearing.”’ “It’s important to say this: Haiti is experiencing war, a war between criminals that want to impose violence as a social order and an armed population that is fighting for human dignity and freedom,” Saint-Cyr said. Violence between the country’s gangs and police, as well as with vigilante groups, has left more than 3,100 people dead from January to June, with another 1,189 injured, according to the UN. The mayhem has displaced more than 1.3 million people across Haiti in recent years, while more than half of Haiti’s nearly 12 million inhabitants were expected to experience severe hunger through the first half of the year. (Jamaica Gleaner)