UN Expert Warns Haiti Gang Violence Is Spreading: ‘Race Against Time’

A United Nations (U.N.) expert warned on Friday that gang violence in Haiti is spreading, saying, “It is a race against time.”

On his recent trip to the Caribbean country, William O’Neill, United Nations Expert on Human Rights in Haiti, “saw that areas previously not impacted by gang violence are now directly impacted,” he said at a news conference on Friday.

O’Neill said the human rights and humanitarian consequences in Haiti are “dramatic” as the country experiences rapid inflation, lack of basic goods and a continual stream of people who are displaced that continue exacerbating “the vulnerability of the population, particularly children and women.”

At least 1,379 people were reported killed or injured in Haiti from April through June, with another 428 kidnapped, according to the U.N. There are at least 700,00 displaced Haitians, of whom more than half are children, as gangs continue to run the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Gang violence began to spiral out of control after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 by a group of foreign mercenaries. Garry Conille, an experienced international aid official, was appointed as prime minister of Haiti in May just before a U.N.-backed mission led by 400-strong Kenyan police officers targeting Haitian criminals began.

The mission, however, has deployed less than a quarter of its planned contingent since Kenyan officers arrived in late June, O’Neill said, adding, “The equipment it has received is inadequate, and its resources are insufficient.”

Gangs are able to “carry out large-scale attacks and extend their control and influence over new territories,” according to O’Neill, by ignoring an international embargo and smuggling weapons and ammunition into Haiti.

O’Neill also mentioned that sexual violence “has drastically increased in recent months” and child trafficking is also on the rise. He explained that sexual violence is used by gangs to control the Haitian population and that children are trafficked to be forcibly recruited into gangs.

The UN expert welcomed Prime Minister Conille’s “efforts to make the fight against corruption a priority,” adding that the “solutions are there, and they already exist. But efforts must be redoubled immediately.”

The U.S. is considering a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Haiti as a way to secure funding and staffing for the security mission.

“A [peacekeeping operation] is one of the ways we could accomplish that,” Brian A. Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, told reporters on September 4. “But we are looking at multiple ways.”

The U.N. has, instead, pushed for more funding for the current mission. When asked earlier this month about a possible peacekeeping mission, a U.N. spokesman told the Associated Press: “It would be a decision of the Security Council.”

This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.