Haiti: At least 150 dead in one week due to gang violence

According to the United Nations, gang violence in the Caribbean country of Haiti has continued to escalate. In the past few weeks alone, at least 150 people have been killed, another 92 injured and around 20,000 displaced, said UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk at the UN headquarters in New York. An estimated four million people would also live in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince “effectively held hostage”as gangs controlled almost all major roads in the city.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Türk also referred to reports of vigilantism against gang members. Port-au-Prince police spokesman Lionel Lazarre said police and residents had killed at least 28 members of criminal gangs.

In addition, Haiti currently no longer has a real government; instead, a transitional council is in office. In view of the developments in Haiti, the USA is calling for the UN police mission stationed in the country to be expanded into a peace mission. The USA is responding to a request that the Haitian Transitional Council made to the UN Security Council.

To convert it into a peace mission, the… “financial, personnel and logistical structures of the United Nations” be used, explained the deputy US ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea. Ecuador’s deputy UN ambassador, Andrés Efren Montalvo Sosa, also joined the US appeal. Ecuador is currently one of the ten non-permanent members of the 15-nation UN Security Council.

There are other supporters of a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti in the Security Council. But the veto powers Russia and China are against it.

Haiti has been in a serious crisis for years, to which not only gang violence but also political instability and economic hardship contribute. The island nation has ten million inhabitants. As a result of gang violence, hundreds of thousands have already fled to quieter parts of the country. According to the UN, kidnappings and sexual violence against women and girls are commonplace.