Gang rapes, targeted children, snipers on the roofs: the “terror” inflicted by gangs on the Haitian population “is spreading at an alarming rate”, alerted the UN on Wednesday, repeating its still unanswered call to send an international force .
In the past three months, “gang crime has increased. Gang violence is spreading at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in Port-au-Prince and outside the capital,” said the new envoy. in the country Maria Isabel Salvador during a meeting of the UN Security Council.
“The horrific violence in areas where gangs are rampant, including sexual violence particularly against women and girls, is emblematic of the terror that affects a large part of the population of Haiti”, nearly half of whom (5 .2 million) also needs humanitarian assistance, she added.
Testimonies collected by the UN “show that gangs continue to use sexual violence, including gang rape, to terrorize and inflict suffering on populations living in areas under the control of their rivals”, insisted Maria Isabel Salvador, “deeply shocked” also by the snipers who attack civilians from the roofs.
She also expressed alarm at the situation of children, “among the victims of the most heinous crimes, including murder, kidnapping and rape”, referring to students who were shot in classrooms and others abducted in front of schools.
Faced with “limited or non-existent police presence”, “some residents began to take matters into their own hands”, she noted, recounting an event that took place on Monday when “a group of civilians seized 13 suspected gang members from police custody, beat them to death and burned their bodies”.
“Even more worrying, we note new dynamics of groups operating outside Port-au-Prince, directly involved in the increasingly sophisticated arms trafficking and seeking to enroll new recruits in camps for displaced populations,” said said Ghada Waly, director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
In a report released on Monday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said insecurity in the Haitian capital has reached levels “comparable to those in countries at war”.
Between January 1 and March 31, the number of reported homicides in the country increased by 21% compared to the previous quarter (815 against 673), and the number of kidnappings by 63% (637 against 391).
In this context, the UN keeps repeating its call to send a specialized international armed force to help the overwhelmed police to restore order.
“We must act quickly before it is too late,” Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Victor Généus insisted before the Council, judging that security had “considerably deteriorated” for 48 hours.
“The appalling scenes of violence in the streets of the capital reflect the extreme anger of an exasperated people who no longer want to accept passively undergoing gang violence,” he said. “The chilling specter of violent clashes is already looming.”
Antonio Guterres had relayed in October a call for help from Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, asking the Security Council to send this force. But without result since: if some countries indicated to be ready to take part in it, none seems to want to take the lead.
“The United States continues to work with a growing number of international partners to support urgent security needs in the country,” said US Representative Jeffrey DeLaurentis, calling for new sanctions “against those who finance and foment the violence”.
The Security Council put in place in October a regime of individual sanctions which for the moment concerns only one person, the gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed “Barbecue”.
26/04/2023 18:30:41 – United Nations (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
