Gang violence has killed more than 1,500 people in Haiti so far this year, the United Nations human rights office said Thursday, the result of what it described as a “catastrophic situation” in the country.
Corruption, impunity and poor governance, along with rising levels of gang violence, have brought Caribbean state institutions “close to collapse”, the agency said.
The UN human rights office said gang violence had left 1,554 dead and 826 injured this year as of March 22. A new report released by the agency describes an increase in sexual violence by gang members, including raping women, often after they witnessed the murder of their husbands.
There is also widespread, deadly vigilantism, with community groups – some calling themselves “self-defense brigades” – attacking people suspected of petty crime or gangs. Last year, 528 people were killed this way and 59 more so far this year, the UN said.
Armed gangs have taken over most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, destroying police stations and government offices, looting banks and hospitals, and killing and kidnapping dozens of people. The violence prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was locked out of the country in early March.
William O’Neill, a United Nations human rights expert who has worked extensively in Haiti, told a news conference in New York on Thursday that the current situation was the worst violence he had seen in Haiti since the beginning of its military dictatorship. 1990s, when rape and executions were routinely used against government opponents.
“The numbers are all 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, Mr. O’Neill said. “Leaving their homes to go to the market is a life-threatening business,” he said.
UN officials warn that Haitian police may not be able to resist the onslaught of gangs for much longer. “I don’t know how much longer Haitians can wait,” Mr. O’Neil said.
The State Department announced this week that it has sent $10 million in equipment, including weapons and ammunition, to Haitian security forces “as they struggle 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 only 600 to 700 Haitian police are currently working in Port-au-Prince, with only 9,000 police active in the entire country, less from half the UN recommended level of policing. Against the gangs, the police are outnumbered and outgunned.
“It’s almost over for the police. It’s on edge,” Mr. Royer said. “Morale is extremely low and they cannot keep up with all the notices they have received. There is no one who is safe now in this city,” he added.
Police have faced gangs “that have demonstrated extensive sophisticated weapons capabilities,” Lewis Galvin, senior Americas analyst at Janes, the defense intelligence firm, said in an email, including various types of assault rifles as well as sniper rifles equipped with hollow-point ammunition.
An international arms embargo has failed to stop the supply of illegal arms and ammunition entering Haiti, the UN report says. “It is shocking that despite the horrific situation on the ground, guns are still falling,” Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, said in a statement on Thursday. “I call for a more effective implementation of the arms embargo,” he added.
In a rare public appearance via a video statement on Thursday, Frantz Elbe, the head of Haiti’s National Police force, tried to reassure the population, standing before fellow officers and wearing a protective vest.
“Our society is going through a political crisis linked to a security crisis the country has never experienced before,” he said, pledging that police “will continue the fight to get you back to your neighborhoods and your family.”
Amid the ongoing violence, the creation of a presidential transition council has been delayed after more than two weeks of negotiations. The council will be tasked with appointing a deputy prime minister to head a new government and holding new elections, while paving the way for the deployment of a UN-backed international police mission. But body makeup has been delayed after many names were withdrawn due to personal safety fears and ethical issues.
While the violence in Port-au-Prince had subsided somewhat in recent days, local aid agencies reported food and fuel shortages after the capital’s main port was closed. Several countries, including the United States, Canada and France, have evacuated hundreds of stranded citizens on emergency flights.
The World Food Program said this week that Haiti is now suffering its worst levels of food insecurity on record after gangs seized farmland and blocked roads in and out of the capital, extorting people into buses and trucks delivering goods.
Andre Poltre contributed to the report.
