More than 530 people have been killed this year in gang violence in Haiti, the United Nations said Tuesday, with many killed by snipers shooting victims at random.
The UN human rights office said it was concerned that extreme violence was spiraling out of control in Haiti. According to the United Nations, gang violence in Haiti has claimed the lives of more than 530 individuals so far this year. Many of these victims were shot by snipers at random.
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Concerned by the out-of-control rise in severe violence in Haiti, the UN human rights office expressed its alarm.
Spokeswoman Marta Hurtado noted, “Clashes between gangs are becoming more violent and more frequent, as they try to expand their territorial control throughout the capital and other regions by targeting people living in areas controlled by rivals.”
“531 people were killed, 300 injured and 277 kidnapped in gang-related incidents that took place mainly in the capital, Port-au-Prince,” she told reporters in Geneva as of March 15.
Hurtado claimed that just in the first two weeks of March, gang fights resulted in at least 208 fatalities, 164 injuries, and 101 kidnappings.
“Most of the victims were killed or injured by snipers who were reportedly randomly shooting at people in their homes or on the streets,” she noted.
Stray gunfire has struck students and instructors, and kidnappings of parents and students near schools have increased, causing several of them to close.
Hurtado said that many youngsters have been forcibly recruited by armed gangs in the absence of the safe school atmosphere.
Since the death of president Jovenel Moise in July 2021, Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been engulfed in a rising political and economic catastrophe; gangs now rule over more than half of the nation’s land.
According to Hurtado, half of the population is going hungry as a result of the ongoing instability and violence.
A quarter of those living in improvised settlements with restricted access to basic sanitization are among the at least 160,000 individuals who have been displaced and are in perilous situations, she continued.
Hurtado asserted that gangs also employ sexual violence against women and girls in an effort to terrify, control, and punish the general populace. She added that Gangs also utilize sexual assault against families of kidnapped girls in an effort to extract ransom payments.
Volker Turk, the UN human rights official, has urged the Haitian government to improve security right away by strengthening the police and overhauling the court system.
“To break the cycle of violence, corruption, and impunity, all those responsible, including those providing support and finance to the gangs, must be prosecuted and tried according to the rule of law,” Hurtado noted.
She noted, “We also call on the international community to urgently consider the deployment of a time-bound, specialized support force.”
