Escalation of gang violence, impunity “generalized”corruption “endemic”…The crisis in Haiti has “further worsened” for a year, alerted the UN Secretary General on Wednesday September 27, calling for a “strong international support”.
“The multifaceted crisis that Haiti is going through, marked above all by organized gang violence, has further worsened since the establishment of the sanctions regime” in October 2022, which currently only targets a gang leader, writes Antonio Guterres in a document.
This report is published while members of the Security Council are negotiating the mandate of an international force requested for a year by Port-au-Prince to support the police overwhelmed by gang violence. This is a non-UN mission of which Kenya must take the lead.
Nearly 2,800 murders in eight months
For a year, gang violence, which has tightened its grip on the capital and beyond, “became even more intense and more brutal”warns Antonio Guterres, describing the use of rape as a weapon of terror, the presence of snipers on roofs or the immolation of living people by fire, but also the emergence in the spring of a self-defense movement .
In total, nearly 2,800 murders were recorded between October 2022 and June 2023; nearly eighty victims were minors, according to the report. The number of kidnappings for ransom, probably underestimated, has also increased: nearly 1,500 cases have been recorded over the past year. This violence “is fueled by arms and ammunition trafficking”mainly from the United States, and “through illicit financial flows”denounces the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Result, “members of armed gangs are more numerous and better armed” than the approximately 14,000 police officers counted at the end of June 2023. And “the gangs use larger caliber weapons and more sophisticated equipment”. Faced with this situation, more than 5% of the workforce left the police in the first half of the year.
The need for “strong international support”
Beyond the violence itself, the report deplores that “impunity remains a widespread problem”. Several emblematic cases, including the assassination of the last president Jovenel Moïse two years ago, are not progressing and the security of judges is a problem. And “corruption remains endemic”in all sectors of the State, from bribes to embezzlement, without forgetting money laundering.
In a clogged justice system, the situation in prisons has also deteriorated, with an average area of 0.3 square meters for each of the 11,800 prisoners (of whom 9,950 are in pre-trial detention).
“The stabilization of security conditions in Haiti will require solid international support, not only for the national police to restore security, but also for the prison services, the judicial system, customs controls and border management”, insisted Antonio Guterres. All this, accompanied by financing ” adequate “.