Armed gangs control much of Caribbean country’s capital with reports of 40 rape victims a day in areas, UN reports
Luke Taylor | Fri 2 Aug 2024
A Kenyan policeman in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, which has been gripped by violence since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021. Photograph: Jean Feguens Regala/Reuters
The UN has called for the deployment of international security forces in Haiti to be accelerated after a report that at least 1,379 people were killed or wounded in gang warfare and 428 people kidnapped in the country between April and June this year.
“Service providers report receiving an average of 40 rape victims a day in some areas of the capital,” warns the new report from the UN’s office in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
While the number of casualties from the warring factions had fallen in recent months, the number of children being recruited into gangs and the rates of sexual violence were rising, the quarterly review said.
Armed gangs have controlled most of the Haitian capital since the former president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021. They forced his successor, Ariel Henry, to resign in April this year by paralysing the Caribbean nation with a wave of unprecedented violence.
To quell the anarchy and facilitate free elections next year, the first detachment of an international taskforce overseen by the UN was deployed to Port-au-Prince on 25 June.
The Haitian prime minister, Garry Conille, a former gynaecologist who took office on 3 June, has pledged to use the 400 Kenyan police officers to retake control of the country “house by house”.
The new figures suggest the chaos that swept the nation in April seems to have calmed a little after Henry’s exit, with killings falling 45% in the three months since the president resigned.
But street shootouts and human rights violations are still commonplace and in some cases are rising, particularly in Port-au-Prince, where fighting is concentrated and where 88% of death and woundings were documented.
Armed gangs have besieged neighbourhoods and killed civilians suspected of collaborating with the police or civilian defence groups.
In one period of 11 days , 128 people – including 13 children – were killed or wounded in Solino, a middle-class district where the most powerful gang coalition, Viv Ansanm (Live Together), vied with a self-defence group for control.
“While most of the victims were hit by stray bullets, others were targeted in the streets for their alleged support of the ‘self-defence’ group,” the report said.
In the notorious slums of Cité Soleil, the Viv Ansanm gang killed at least 28 people for offences deemed to challenge their authority, such as petty theft or leaving the neighbourhood.
The sexual abuse of women and girls has become alarmingly commonplace, with gangs using rape as a weapon to stamp their authority on communities before shooting them dead and burning their corpses or dumping them in rubbish, the report said. There are reports of children as young as three being raped in homes and refugee camps.
The number of women and girls forced into prostitution and sexual relationships with gang members is also on the rise, the report says.
UN Women warned last month of the extreme vulnerability and “alarming living conditions and lack of security” faced by the 300,000 Haitian women and girls displaced by the violence without basic safety and health services.
Rape in refugee camps was often “to control women’s access to the scarce humanitarian assistance available” and, of the women surveyed, 88% had no source of income and one in 10 had resorted to or considered sex work as a result, the UN Women statement said.
Growing violence against children was “particularly worrying”, the new report added. Forty-nine boys and girls were killed or wounded between April and June, with some dying after being recruited as fighters.
Diego Da Rin, a Haiti specialist from the International Crisis Group, said the arrival of Kenyan forces in Haiti had led to some early “minor victories” against armed groups and showed they could help to turn the tide.
Bolstered by new officers and armoured vehicles, the police have begun patrolling areas that Haiti’s national forces had previously abandoned, including gang territory. Beating back the gangs and liberating the millions of Haitians under their control will require thousands more officers, however.
The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Chad and Jamaica have also offered to send forces to Haiti but the initiative has been held up by domestic political opposition and a lack of funds. The UN has raised $21m with Kenya’s officials estimating its own mission’s cost will cost up to $600m (£470m).
Da Rin said: “There is a worrying lack of resources to continue the deployment of personnel from Kenya and other countries that have expressed a willingness to join the mission.”
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
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