The security crisis in Haiti has reached “catastrophic” proportions, with 1,554 murders in the first three months of 2024 alone, the UN said Thursday, complaining that the “porous borders” of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere facilitate the supply of gangs with weapons and ammunition.

“It is shocking to note that despite the horrors of the situation on the ground, weapons continue to enter the country in abundance. I call for the arms embargo to be implemented more effectively,” underlined the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, presenting a new report.

“Structural and contextual factors have driven Haiti into a cataclysmic situation, characterized by deep political instability and extremely fragile institutions,” the report states (p. 13).

Haiti, already faced with a deep crisis, political and security, has experienced since the beginning of the month a rapid escalation of attacks by gangs, who joined forces and targeted strategic locations in the capital, saying that their aim was to overthrow the de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henri.

Increasingly contested, the latter was unable to return to his country after a trip to Kenya. He finally agreed to resign on March 11.

On the same day, during an extraordinary international meeting in Jamaica, with the participation of member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), in which Guyana currently holds the rotating presidency, and representatives of the UN and other states, including France, were present and the US, various Haitian organizations and political factions were tasked with forming transitional authorities, a presidential transitional council, composed mainly of representatives of political parties.

In its first official announcement made public yesterday Wednesday, the newly established council that is expected to take the reins of the country into its own hands pledged to restore “public and democratic order”.

According to the UN, “corruption, impunity and mismanagement, exacerbated by rising levels of gang violence, have undermined the rule of law and brought state institutions (…) to the brink of collapse.”

The number of people killed and injured in gang violence rose sharply in 2023: 4,451 and 1,668, respectively, according to UN figures — which are rather conservative.

The death toll rose even faster in the first three months of 2024, with 1,554 dead and 826 injured as of March 22, according to the text.

“Superior Firepower”

UNHCR stresses that, despite the arms embargo, “the illegal trafficking of arms and ammunition across the porous border provides a reliable supply chain for gangs”, to the extent that they “often have superior firepower to the police” in Haiti.

He reiterates that he considers the urgent deployment of a multinational security support mission necessary to help the Haitian police end the violence and restore the rule of law.

However, Mr. Turk emphasizes in the press release accompanying the report that it is “absolutely necessary” for the mission to guarantee that “human rights will be respected in the conduct of its operations.”

According to the report, gangs continue to use sexual violence to terrorize, punish and control the population. But cases of sexual violence are rarely reported and usually go unpunished.

Gangs also continue to recruit and/or abuse children—both boys and girls—some of whom have been killed when they attempted to leave the gang ranks.

Along with the escalation of gang violence and the inability of the police to deal with it, “civil police brigades” continued to appear that administer justice by themselves, judge themselves, the text notes. At least 528 lynchings (510 men, 18 women) were recorded in 2023 and another 59 already in 2024.

Although some killings appeared to have been carried out spontaneously, others were encouraged, supported or facilitated by police and gang members belonging to an alliance of criminal organizations known as the G9 and its allies, according to the report (p. 4).