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The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) reports that more than 2,500 people have been killed or injured in gang violence in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country during the first three months of this year.
In a statement, BINUH said that the situation from January through March is a 53 percent increase from the last three months of 2023.
BINUH said that at least 590 were killed during police operations, and several were apparently not involved in gang violence, while some had impaired mobility, and at least 141 were killed by vigilante justice groups.
Most of the violence took place in the capital, while at least 438 people were kidnapped across the wider West Department and agricultural Artibonite region.
BINUH said that gang members continued to perpetrate rapes against women and girls in rival neighborhoods, as well as in prisons and displacement camps.
The UN estimates that hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced by gang violence, which has worsened as the criminal gangs seek to remove the government of Prime Minister Dr Ariel Henry, who came to power in July 2021 following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his private residence overlooking the capital.
“Insecurity continues to affect the people of Haiti, especially in the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (ZMPAP), where looting and murders persist. For example, on 18 April, armed groups attacked areas in the Carrefour commune and seized a police station, killing seven people, as reported by the media,” according to a report released on Saturday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Haiti in collaboration with humanitarian partners.
In its report, OCHA said logistical constraints, especially with regard to supply, are also causing increasing difficulties in accessing food and other basic goods, resulting in a consequent rise in prices.
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