Immediate action needs to be taken by the international community to address conditions in Haiti, otherwise “it’s hard to imagine a decent future” for the Caribbean nation, said the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday.

Raped and burnt alive

Ms. Russell recounted some of the shocking testimony she had heard talking to women and girls at a centre for survivors of gender-based violence, which has now reached “staggering levels”.

“An 11-year-old girl told me in the softest of voices that five men had grabbed her off the street. Three of them raped her. She was eight months pregnant when we spoke – and gave birth just a few days later.

"One woman told me that armed men had barged into her house and raped her. She said her 20-year-old sister resisted so strongly that they killed her by setting her on fire. Then they burned down their house.”