In the last week, a Kenyan-led multinational force has assisted the outgunned police in reestablishing some government order after well-armed gangs that control 80% of the city have injured 92 people and displaced 20,000 others.
At least 150 people have died as a result of the rampant violence in Port-au-Prince since last week, raising the total number of fatalities in Haiti this year to over 4,500, according to the UN.
UN rights chief Volker Turk issued a warning, saying, “The most recent surge in violence in Haiti’s capital is a harbinger of worse to come.”
“The gang violence needs to be stopped immediately. We must prevent Haiti from sinking any deeper into anarchy.
Since November 11, Port-au-Prince has seen a sharp increase in violence as a group of gangs fight for complete control of the Haitian city.
Even though an international force led by Kenya has been sent in to assist the outgunned police in reestablishing some government order, well-armed gangs still control around 80% of the city and frequently target civilians.
“At least 150 people have been killed, 92 injured and about 20,000 forced to flee their homes over the past week,” stated Turk in a statement.
Furthermore, “Port-au-Prince’s estimated four million people are practically being held hostage as gangs now control all the main roads in and out of the capital” .
Within a year, the death toll jumps to 4,544.
Viv Ansanm, a gang coalition that assisted in the removal of previous prime minister Ariel Henry in February, has resumed warfare in the Haitian capital in the past week.
According to Turk, gunfights between gang members and police were responsible for at least 55% of the fatalities from concurrent, seemingly planned strikes across the city.
Additionally, he brought attention to claims of an increase in mob lynchings.
As the government tries to restore some control, authorities reported on Tuesday that 28 gang members had been slain in Port-au-Prince by police and civilian self-defense organizations following an overnight operation.
Residents of Port-au-Prince stoned and burned alive twelve suspected gang members last year in a graphic episode of the vigilante retaliation.
“The verified casualty toll of the gang violence so far this year to a shocking 4,544 dead and 2,060 injured” was the UN rights office’s statement following the most recent bloodshed.
It emphasised that the true toll “is likely higher still”.
Furthermore, it stated that half of the 700,000 internally displaced individuals currently living in the nation are children.
Turk stated that “the endless gang violence and widespread insecurity are deepening the dire humanitarian crisis in the country, including the impacts of severe food and water shortages and the spread of infectious diseases” .
He stated that “threats and attacks on humanitarian workers are also deeply worrying” and that this was taking place “at a time when the health system is already on the brink of collapse.”
“Gang violence must not prevail over the institutions of the State,” he stated, requesting “concrete steps … to protect the population and to restore effective rule of law” .
