Haiti gang violence expanding at ‘alarming rate,’ UN warns

Gang violence in Haiti is spreading at “an alarming rate,” the UN warned Wednesday, repeating its unanswered call for an international force to help restore order in the crisis-torn country.

From lynchings and rooftop snipers to the murder of children, a “shocking increase” in violent crimes over the past three months is inflicting terror on Haiti’s population, a UN envoy said.

“Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in Port-au-Prince and outside the capital,” Maria Isabel Salvador, special representative to Haiti told the Security Council.

The diplomat cited figures from the Haitian National Police and the United Nations that showed the number of reported violent crimes — including murders, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings — more than doubling in the first quarter of 2023.

She said 1,647 such incidents were recorded, compared to 692 in the same period in 2022.

“The horrific violence in gang-ridden areas, including sexual violence, particularly against women and girls, is emblematic of the terror afflicting much of Haiti’s population,” Salvador added.

She said that interviews carried out by the UN “indicate that gangs continue to use sexual violence, including multiple perpetrator rape, to terrorize and inflict pain on populations living in areas under the control of their rivals.”

She added children are among the victims “of the most heinous crimes, including killings, kidnappings, and rape.”

“Over the last three months, school children have been hit by bullets while sitting in their classrooms and kidnapped when being dropped off at school,” Salvador told diplomats.

The Ecuadoran said that some residents — faced with increasingly violent armed gangs vying for control of neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince and with little to no police presence — “have begun to take matters in their own hands.”

On Monday, more than a dozen suspected gang members were stoned and burned alive in the capital by residents, according to police and witnesses.

“These dynamics lead indefectibly to the breakdown of social fabric with unpredictable consequences for the entire region,” Salvador said.

Ghada Waly, director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), warned the meeting that “new dynamics of groups operating outside Port-au-Prince” are “seeking to enlist new recruits in camps for displaced people.”

“The flows of illicit firearms and drugs into Haiti are compounded the situation, fueling violence and adding complex challenges,” she added.

In a report released this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that insecurity in Port-au-Prince “has reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict.”

The United Nations chief has for months been asking the Security Council to send a specialized non-UN international armed force to help police restore order.

While some countries have indicated a willingness to participate, none have come forward to take the lead.

“We must act quickly before it is too late,” Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus told the Council, saying security had deteriorated “considerably” in the past 48 hours.

US representative Jeffrey DeLaurentis said the United States “continues to work with a growing number of international partners” to support Haiti’s urgent security needs.

He also called for “additional sanctions against those who finance and foment violence and instability” in the country.

The Security Council introduced an individual sanctions regime in October, which so far only covers one person — gang leader Jimmy Cherizier who is known as “Barbecue.”

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas and has suffered years of humanitarian, economic and political crises.

The assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise in July 2021 by an armed group made up primarily of around 20 Colombian mercenaries deepened its crises.