PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — One of Haiti’s leaders on Thursday asked the world to help his troubled Caribbean country fight what he characterized as a war against relentless gang violence and widespread hunger.

Laurent Saint-Cyr, head of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, addressed the U.N. 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.

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