September 20, 2024: As a U.N.-backed operation targeting criminals in the impoverished Caribbean nation continues to be underfunded and understaffed, a U.N. human rights expert issued a warning: gang violence is spreading throughout Haiti.
William O’Neill, who traveled to Haiti this week, claimed that despite an international embargo, weapons and ammunition continue to pour into the country, leaving the National Police of that country lacking the “logistical and technical capacity” to combat gangs, which he claimed are pushing on new territory.
- Advertisement -
“Humanitarian consequences are dramatic,” He stated, admonishing about raging inflation, a scarcity of necessities, and “internally displaced people further increasing the vulnerability of the population, particularly children and women.”
According to the United Nations, at least 1,379 deaths and injuries were recorded in Haiti between April and the end of June, while 428 kidnappings were reported.
As gang violence continues in Port-au-Prince and beyond, at least 700,000 people have been rendered homeless in recent years; more than half of these individuals are children, according to O’Neill.
He claimed to have spoken with Rameau Normil, the head of police of Haiti, who revealed that just 5,000 policemen are serving a nation of over 11 million people.
O’Neill said that Normil had informed him that “it is impossible to provide security.”
The people of Haiti “lack everything,” according to O’Neill, who also stated that the government must be held responsible for fighting “corruption and bad governance, which continue to plunge the country into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Less than 25% of the promised contingent has been deployed by the current operation, which is being commanded by 400-strong Kenyan police officers who arrived in Haiti in late June, he said.
O’Neill noted, “The equipment it has received is inadequate, and its resources are insufficient.”
The U.N. has pressed for extra funds for the existing mission, but Washington is considering a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Haiti as a means of securing cash and manpower for the Kenya-led force.
