Gang violence has forced many children to seek refuge in overcrowded schools repurposed as shelters or with host families, often with little to no access to clean water, food, or healthcare.

"We want to emphasize that the UN is not leaving Haiti," Haq said in response to reports the world body was moving personnel out of the country. "We continue supporting the Haitian people and authorities,

The statement was issued just days after gangs launched a pre-dawn attack Tuesday around an upper-class community in Haiti’s capital, forcing residents armed with machetes and guns to fight side-by-side with police to repel gunmen.

Gang violence surged in Haiti, with a paroxysm of bloodshed leaving at least 150 dead and driving the charity Doctors Without Borders to suspend its operations in the country. Haiti has been racked by armed groups who operate with impunity, unrestrained by a government that controls little of the nation’s actual territory.