Haiti: Homicide numbers soar, UN ready to help

Anti-gang operation in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 3, 2023. AP - Odelyn Joseph

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2 min

Armed gangs continue to spread terror in Haiti. The phenomenon is not new, but it has increased since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021. And since the beginning of 2023, the situation has worsened: in March alone, 195 people were killed by armed groups, according to the Organization of Citizens for a New Haiti (OCNH).

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The number of homicides in Haiti has more than tripled in just one month. Camille Occius, president of the OCNH, explains this increase by the inability of the police to act against criminal gangs: "The police are becoming powerless, the police cannot deal with armed civilians. As a result, these armed civilians have forces to spread terror.

Gangs control 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince and are gradually eating away at the entire Haitian territory. Rapes, kidnappings affecting pregnant women, children... No social strata is spared.

During the month of March 2023, the OCNH recorded 195 homicide cases in the country. There is a clear increase compared to the previous month. Gangs continue to kill with impunity. The HNP is outdated. Self-defence groups have emerged. pic.twitter.com/yR9lKPeaVs

— OCNH_Haiti (@OrganisationUne) April 3, 2023 The OCNH advocates, among other things, equipping the police with more sophisticated equipment and calls for the establishment of a state of emergency. A request for the moment remained unanswered. By the end of March, more than 136,000 Haitians had been forced to flee their homes to flee the violence. Internally displaced people are twice as numerous as in 2021, according to the International Organization for Migration.

On Tuesday 4 April, the United Nations Human Rights Council agreed to provide assistance to the Haitian government in its fight to end the violence ravaging the country. It wants to provide "technical assistance and support for capacity building in the promotion and protection of human rights".

Justin Viard, Haiti's ambassador, told the council that "the barbarity of gangs has reached a peak" and that his country is "facing one of the worst situations of poverty and terror in the world."

► Read also: #JeVaisMourirBientôt: in Haiti, the cry of despair of a journalist in the face of insecurity

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• Haiti
• Criminality