UNITED NATIONS, United States: A UN report Friday said soaring wave of gang violence in Haiti left 1,660 people dead and some 850 wounded in the first three months of 2024.
According to the report by the UN mission in Haiti (BINUH), the death toll suggests over 50 percent increase over the previous quarter.
The Caribbean country has been ravaged for decades by political instability, poverty, natural disasters and escalating gang violence. Gangs control large areas of the capital Port-au-Prince.
But a full-fledged crisis broke out in late February, when gangs launched a coordinated campaign seeking to push out Haiti’s unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry.
In the ensuing violence, “more than 4,600 inmates escaped from the two main prisons in the capital, and at least 22 police stations, sub-police stations and other police buildings were looted or set on fire, and 19 police officers were killed or injured,” said the UN report.
Henry, who was abroad when the latest wave of violence broke out, announced on March 11 that he agreed to step down and that he would be replaced by a ruling transitional council.
But the council couldn’t be established until a month later.
“Between 1 January and 31 March, 1,660 persons (1,347 men, 273 women and 40 children) were killed, and another 845 (624 men, 179 women and 42 children) were injured by gang violence,” according to a BINUH spokesman.
In the last quarter of last year, there were 1,104 killings recorded and 532 injuries.
The deaths in early 2024 include about 141 people killed by “self-defence” groups, the highest number in the past year as the country’s security forces are overwhelmed by the gangs.
However, the UN report noted that kidnappings for ransom across the country fell by 37 percent compared to the previous quarter.
At least 438 people have been abducted, the report said, most of them in Artibonite department north of the capital where gangs prey on public transport passengers.
Despite this, gangs continue to resort to sexual violence against residents of “rival” areas, with a particular focus on gang rapes of young girls, the report said.
Maria Isabel Salvador, the BINUH chief, said the gang violence was severely limiting access to essential services and called for accelerating the deployment of a UN-backed world security mission to be led by Kenya.
