More than 1,500 people have died because of this of gang violence in Haiti this 12 months, the UN Human Rights Office said on Thursday, resulting from a “disastrous situation” in the country.
Corruption, impunity and mismanagement, combined with rising levels of gang violence, have brought the Caribbean nation’s state institutions “close to collapse,” the agency said.
The UN Human Rights Office reported that as of March 22, 1,554 people had been killed and 826 injured in gang violence. A brand new report published by the agency describes a pointy increase in sexual violence by gang members, including the rape of girls, often after witnessing the murder of their husbands.
There can be widespread lethal vigilantism in which community groups – some calling themselves “self-defense brigades” – goal people suspected of minor crimes or gang affiliation. According to the UN, 528 people died in this fashion last 12 months, and up to now this 12 months – 59 more.
Armed gangs have taken control of much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, destroying police stations and government offices, in addition to looting banks and hospitals, and killing and kidnapping dozens of people. The violence led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was stranded abroad in early March.
William O’Neill, a U.N. human rights expert who has worked extensively in Haiti, said at a news conference in New York on Thursday that the present situation is the worst violence he has seen in Haiti for the reason that military dictatorship in the early Nineteen Nineties. , when rape and execution were widely used against opponents of the federal government.
“All the numbers are going in the wrong direction, very quickly,” he said.
Haitians are trapped in an “open prison,” cut off from the world by air, land and sea, O’Neill said. Leaving their homes and going to the market “is a life-threatening endeavor for them,” he said.
UN officials have warned that Haitian police may now not give you the option to withstand gang attacks. “I don’t know how long Haitians can wait,” Mr. O’Neill said.
The State Department announced this week that it’s sending $10 million price of kit, including weapons and ammunition, to Haitian security forces “as they fight to protect people and critical infrastructure from organized and targeted gang attacks.”
The head of the UN human rights office in Haiti, Arnaud Royer, said in an interview that there are only 600-700 Haitian law enforcement officials currently working in Port-au-Prince and that there are only 9,000 law enforcement officials in the complete country, lower than half Recommended by UN level police. Compared to gangs, the police are outnumbered and outgunned.
“It’s almost over for the police. They are on edge,” Mr. Royer said. “Morale is extremely low and they are unable to keep up with all the alerts they receive. No one is safe in this city right now,” he added.
Police were battling gangs “that have demonstrated extensive capabilities with advanced weapons,” Lewis Galvin, senior Americas analyst at Janes, a defense intelligence firm that includes assault rifles of various brands as well as sniper rifles equipped with hollow barrels. -point ammunition.
The UN report concluded that the international arms embargo did not block the supply of illegal weapons and ammunition to Haiti. “It is shocking that despite the horrific situation on the ground, weapons continue to arrive,” Volker Turk, the U.N. human rights chief, said in a press release Thursday. “I appeal for more practical implementation of the arms embargo,” he added.
In a rare public appearance via video statement on Thursday, Frantz Elbe, head of the Haitian National Police, tried to calm the population by standing in front of other officers and wearing a protective vest.
“Our society is experiencing a political crisis coupled with a security crisis the likes of which the country has never experienced before,” he said, vowing that police “will continue to fight to get you back to your neighborhoods and your families.”
Amid ongoing violence, the formation of an interim presidential council was delayed after more than two weeks of negotiations. The council will be tasked with appointing an acting prime minister to lead the new government and hold new elections, as well as paving the way for the deployment of a UN-backed international police mission. However, the composition of the body was delayed after several names were withdrawn due to personal safety and ethical concerns.
While violence in Port-au-Prince has subsided somewhat in recent days, local aid agencies have reported food and fuel shortages following the closure of the capital’s main port. Several countries, including the United States, Canada and France, evacuated hundreds of stranded citizens on emergency flights.
The World Food Program said this week that Haiti now suffers from its worst-ever level of food insecurity after gangs took over farmland and blocked roads to and from the capital, extorting money from people in buses and trucks delivering goods.
Paul’s second tree reporting contributed.
