Between the start of April and the tip of June, armed violence in Haiti has killed 1,520 individuals and injured 609 extra, in response to a brand new report on human rights in Haiti which was launched on Friday.
These numbers are just like these from the primary quarter of 2025 when 1,617 individuals have been killed and 580 have been injured.
“Gang assaults within the Artibonite and Centre departments, and within the capital, proceed to trigger critical human rights violations and exacerbate an already dire humanitarian disaster,” stated Ulrika Richardson, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti.
Gangs inside and past the capitol
President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination in 2021 triggered widespread gang violence within the capital of Port-au-Prince. At this time, the UN estimates that gangs management not less than 85 per cent of town. Up to now few months, many have begun to increase their affect within the Centre and Artibonite departments.
In June alone, 45,000 individuals have been displaced in Centre and Artibonite, which means that the full variety of displaced individuals throughout these two departments totals over 240,000, in response to the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM).
Between April and June, safety forces have been in a position to decelerate the gang’s growth within the capital, however the UN workplace in Haiti, BINUH. famous that the state of affairs nonetheless stays exceptionally unstable.
Moreover, gangs have continued to increase into Artibonite and Centre, in some situations even starting to ascertain sketches of governance to consolidate territorial features.
In Mirebalais, for instance, two gangs who management the entry and exit factors of this city, organized road cleansing and home portray campaigns. Nonetheless, as a result of the residents of Mirebalais have largely fled, these gangs reportedly needed to recruit residents from their managed territory within the capital.
As many gangs increase their territory, they’ve dedicated human rights violations, in response to the UN, together with extrajudicial killings, baby exploitations, trafficking, homicide and gang rape.
Gang rape is now the predominant type of sexual violence, accounting for 85 per cent of all documented instances. In mid-Might, two girls in Cité Soleil have been brutally gang raped earlier than being shot lifeless and burned in what seemed to be a perverse act of gang “justice” for coming into an off-limits neighbourhood.
“Gang members continued to resort to murders, gang rapes, and kidnappings to keep up their management over populations dwelling in areas below their affect,” BINUH stated.
Folks killed and our bodies burned with impunity
The UN has lengthy warned that gangs usually are not the one teams committing human rights abuses and violations in Haiti — authorities safety forces and native self-defence teams have additionally dedicated violations.
Of the 1,520 individuals killed and 609 injured between April and June, most have been within the capital or the Centre and Artibonite departments, with 24 per cent of them killed or injured by gangs.
One notably grotesque incident occurred on the finish of Might when members of 1 gang in Port-au-Prince slashed the throats of 15 males between the ages of 70 and 80. The gang portrayed this as a “sacrifice” for a voodoo ceremony and burned the our bodies of the aged males on the finish.
Safety operations in opposition to gangs accounted for 64 per cent of the deaths and accidents throughout this era, with 73 documented instances of abstract executions and one-third of the deaths occurring on account of explosive drones.
One public prosecutor in Miragoâne killed 27 people whom he alleged have been gang members between April and June, bringing the full variety of executions he has dedicated with impunity to 83 since 2022.
Self-defence teams, which have fashioned as a response in opposition to the gangs and safety power’s incapability to include them, have been liable for 12 per cent of these killed and injured. These teams have been particularly energetic in Port-au-Prince and the Artibonite division.
In late Might, one of many self-defence teams attacked the city of Petit -Rivière, utilizing machetes to kill over 55 individuals — largely farmers — who they accused of supporting a gang. These farmers have been killed whereas attending a spiritual ceremony and their our bodies have been burned.
Respect human rights
The humanitarian state of affairs in Haiti is more and more dire, with over 1.3 million individuals displaced and half of the inhabitants dealing with meals insecurity.
With the humanitarian response plan solely 8 per cent funded, the UN Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is looking on the worldwide group to step up monetary help.
The report additionally urged the worldwide group to proceed to extend help for Haiti’s struggle in opposition to gangs.
“The report calls on the Haitian authorities, with the help of the worldwide group, to strengthen the struggle in opposition to gangs whereas strictly respecting human rights and requirements on using power,” the UN Mission in Haiti stated.
