A wave of gang violence in Haiti last year killed thousands, the UN says
More than 5,600 people were reportedly killed in Haiti last year as a Kenyan-led U.N.-backed mission struggled to curb widespread gang violence, officials said Tuesday.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, the number of murders increased by more than 20 percent compared to 2023. In addition, more than 2,200 people were reported injured and about 1,500 people were kidnapped.
“These numbers alone cannot describe the absolute horrors that have been committed in Haiti, but they show that people are being subjected to ongoing violence,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Among the casualties were two journalists and a police officer killed on Christmas Eve when gunmen opened fire on a crowd gathered for the long-awaited reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital.
In all, gang violence has left more than 700,000 Haitians homeless in recent years, many crowded into makeshift and unsanitary shelters after gunmen ransacked their homes.
“I saw family members killed and I couldn’t do anything to save them,” said Garry Joseph, 55, who now lives in an abandoned government office with hundreds of others who fled their neighborhoods. The night we had to leave, everyone was running for their lives.”
Last year’s victims included more than 200 people, many of them elderly Haitians, killed in a slum controlled by the gang in early December as a gang leader sought revenge for the death of his son as a result of witchcraft, according to the UN. . It was one of the largest massacres recorded in recent history in the capital Port-au-Prince.
At least 110 people have been killed in Haiti’s Cite Soleil slum after a gang leader targeted elderly people he suspected of causing his child’s illness through witchcraft, according to the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights.
Other people killed last year included 315 suspected gang members who were lynched or people associated with them, and more than 280 people killed by police, according to the UN.
Turk is calling for more logistical and financial support for the UN-backed mission, which began in early June.
The mission is led by about 400 Kenyan police and was joined a few days ago by 150 military police officers from Central America, mostly from Guatemala. Several other countries have sent or pledged a handful of personnel, but the total remains well below the 2,500 officers expected for the mission.
Commercial flights were suspended
In another blow to Haiti’s stability, Sunrise Airways announced Monday it would temporarily suspend flights to and from Port-au-Prince, which is 85 percent controlled by gangs. Stating that the decision was based on circumstances beyond its control, the agency said that the safety of passengers and crew members is a priority.
This leaves the country’s main international airport without any commercial flights for the third time this year.
“There’s nowhere you can go,” Joseph said, noting that the gangs also controlled all the main roads into and out of Port-au-Prince and fired randomly at public transport. “No one is safe in this country, especially in Port-au-Prince… Everyone is just counting their days.”
In November, the airport in Port-au-Prince was closed after gangs opened fire and shot down three planes. Including a Spirit Airlines plane It was mid-flight, a flight attendant was injured.
Although the airport reopened, in December the US Federal Aviation Administration extended the ban on US flights to Haiti’s capital until March 12 due to security concerns. The incident also prompted Canada to update its travel advisory to warn against all travel to Haiti due to the threat of gang violence and Air Transat. has been suspended all flights to and from Port-au-Prince by the end of April.
Roni Jean-Bernard, a 30-year-old former moto taxi driver who now lives in an overcrowded shelter, said gang violence has forced him to rely on handouts.
“I live on bread and sugar most of the time,” he said, noting that government officials stopped distributing free food at his shelter about four months ago.
“Every day is like darkness. I can’t see where life is taking me with this government that promises things will get better. I hear that every day.”
As the violence continued to escalate, Turk called on all nations to halt deportations to Haiti.
“The severe insecurity and resulting human rights crisis in the country simply does not allow for the safe, dignified and sustainable return of Haitians. Yet deportations continue,” he said.
About 27,800 Haitians have been deported under US President Joe Biden, according to Thomas Cartwright, Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data.
Meanwhile, the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, deported more than a quarter of a million people to Haiti last year as part of an ongoing crackdown on migrants.
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