The United Nations Integration Office in Haiti (BINUH) said on Tuesday that a country riven by poverty and violence, as ambitious gangs are not just terrorizing people on their turf, but attacking areas they do not yet control. He said the situation in the country was “unfortunately getting worse.” They are already in control.
“The situation in Haiti is not improving. The number of displaced people has increased by 22%, the political process faces serious challenges, and hope has turned to deep concern,” said BINUH Director Maria Isabel. Mr. Salvador says. said United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
salvador said Haiti's security environment “remains extremely fragile, with renewed peaks in severe violence.” She highlighted the savage October 3rd group attack In Pon Zonde, Artibonite province, 115 civilians were killed by a heavily armed gang seeking revenge for police killings of members of their gang.
another massacre The event, spotlighted by director BINUH, took place during the first two weeks of October in the town of Alkaier, famous as the birthplace of the Haitian flag. The gang's enforcers murdered entire families in Arkaie and threw their bodies into mass graves, apparently to extend the authority of warlord Jeff LaRose and the Canaan gang over the area.
salvador said Gang violence is rapidly spreading to the outskirts of Port-au-Prince and into the surrounding farmlands, leaving the Haitian National Police (HNP) and a small number of Kenyan police officers unable to keep up. She said gang leaders are “spreading fear and terror and overwhelming national security institutions.”
Several countries have pledged to send more than 3,000 troops to Haiti to help keep the peace, but only a few hundred have actually been sent. arrived up to now. The gang leaders ridiculed He derided the Kenyan officers as completely incompetent. Kenyan police have only been involved in one major operation to date, retaking the town of Gantier from a gang called 400 Mawozo in July. The gang simply left town when Kenyan police arrived, and within days of their departure they retaken the town.
Haitian gangs are increasing sexual violence against women and children to maintain order in the country, said Catherine Russell, UNICEF's Haiti aid worker.
Russell pointed out that up to half of the informants, servants and sex slaves held by gangs are children, some of whom are forcibly recruited as child soldiers.
“Gang rape is used as a weapon, and the bodies of women and girls are battlefields,” agreed Rosie Auguste Dussena of the Haiti National Human Rights Defense Network.
Mr Dussena accused Haitian officials of “rampant corruption”, accusing them of draining the national treasury, funneling some of the spoils to gangs and using the money to buy weapons. Ta.
The United Nations estimates that about 4,200 Haitians have been forced from their homes on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince in the past week, joining the 700,000 people displaced by post-war gang warfare. assassination Announced by President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.
On Monday, a coalition of gangs called Vivu Ansanmu was launched. attack The government-controlled Solino neighborhood in Port-au-Prince is being used as a safe haven for refugees. Haitian President Gary Coniel ordered the redeployment of police and soldiers from guarding dignitaries to strengthen Solino's defenses. Conil added that he expects 150 troops from the Bahamas to reinforce Haitian police in the coming months.
