Haiti’s gangs inflict ‘extreme brutality’ as casualties rise – UN report

An escalating gang war in Haiti killed or injured 1,745 people between July and September, according to a new United Nations human rights report, representing a more than 30 percent increase from the previous quarter.

At least 106 extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions were carried out by law enforcement officials, including six children aged 10 or younger, the report from the UN’s Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) revealed on Wednesday.

During this period, gangs also kidnapped 170 individuals for ransom, the report noted.

The surge in violence comes as a UN-backed security mission to quell the gangs, led by 400 Kenyan police, has struggled to gain international funding and personnel.

Calls are growing for a UN peacekeeping mission to intervene amid political bickering in Haiti over a shaky transition process with new elections scheduled for late 2025.

“In the absence of state representatives, gangs increasingly assume roles typically held by the police and judiciary while imposing their own rules,” warned the BINUH report.

‘Burned alive’

The violence was largely the responsibility of a swarm of gangs vying for power in the impoverished Caribbean nation, which is in the throes of a four-year political crisis, said the BINUH report.

The gang coalition, calling itself Viv Ansamn (Living Together) in Haitian Creole, controls or has a presence in 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Some of the bloodiest recent clashes have occurred in the La Saline shantytown, close to the capital’s main port. There, 238 residents were killed or wounded, “most of them inside their makeshift homes,” the report said.

In the capital’s notorious Cite Soleil slum, a failed gang truce erupted into a two-day battle in September, killing or injuring dozens more people, including seven children, the report added.

A woman flees her home from gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 26, 2024 [Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters]

Gangs also occupied the communities of Carrefour and Gressier in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, using “extreme brutality to bring residents under their control”, said BINUH.

In one case, it said, a plainclothes policeman who gang members stopped in mid-August “was mutilated, then forced to eat parts of his body, before being burned alive.”

Sexual violence was also widespread, with 55 tracked cases of gang rape, though the report noted that such crimes are vastly underreported.

Women and girls as young as 10 “were attacked inside their homes, while others were kidnapped and raped while walking on the streets or riding in public transport vehicles”, it said.

‘Disproportionate’ police violence

1,223 people were killed and 522 injured as a result of gang violence and the fight against gangs, the UN said in its quarterly report. While this represents a 27 percent increase on the previous quarter, it’s 32 percent drop from the first three months of the year.

On top of the violence inflicted by gangs, Haitian law enforcement was also responsible for 669 casualties, according to the BINUH report. Most of those killed or injured were gang members, but around a quarter of the victims were not involved in the hostilities and were simply caught in the crossfire.

“Information gathered … points to a possible disproportionate use of lethal force and a lack of precautionary measures to protect the population during police operations,” BINUH said.

Police also summarily executed at least 96 people, including six children, while the public prosecutor for the southern coastal city of Miragoan, Jean Ernest Muscadin, carried out 10 extrajudicial executions, according to the report.

A senior UN official told Al Jazeera that the agency had “brought this issue to the attention of police leadership and they told us that they will take actions promptly.”

Al Jazeera has requested comment from Haiti’s national police.

William O’Neill, the United Nations Independent Expert on Human Rights in Haiti, told Al Jazeera that he was “concerned” by the allegations of extrajudicial executions committed by the police.

“In its efforts to control Haiti’s vicious gangs, the police must follow international law on the use of force, especially deadly force,” he added, saying that the police must investigate all cases where force may have been used disproportionately.

The UN’s latest findings underscore the deepening humanitarian crisis in Haiti, where years of gang violence have forced 700,000 people from their homes and deepened already devastating poverty and hunger.

Violence soared even more this month as gunmen tried to take over one of the last areas of the capital not under their control, the Solino neighbourhood close to the largely deserted downtown area. Several gang attacks targeted foreign staff of the UN and US embassy and disrupted plans to send a batch of diplomatic staff back home.

Survivors of a deadly gang attack in central Haiti in early October described waking up to gunfire and walking for hours in search of safety in the aftermath of the assault that killed almost 100 people.

Dozens of members of the Gran Grif, or Big Claw gang armed with knives and assault rifles, killed infants, women, the elderly and entire families in their attack on Pont-Sonde, about 100km (62 miles) northwest of Port-au-Prince.

On October 18, the UN Security Council extended an arms embargo on Haiti because of grave concerns over the extremely high levels of gang violence.

After his latest visit to the country last month, O’Neill expressed alarm that the situation was deteriorating.

“Efforts must be redoubled immediately,” he told reporters.

He raised concerns about the increase in sexual violence perpetrated by gangs, as well as the trafficking and forced recruitment of children.

He also made an urgent appeal to the international community to provide the Kenyan-led security mission with the resources needed to effectively support police operations, as well as urging the enforcement of the arms embargo.