UN human rights chief: international support needed amid escalating gang violence in Haiti News
msjennm / Pixabay
UN human rights chief: international support needed amid escalating gang violence in Haiti

United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Türk expressed alarm over escalating violence in Haiti on Friday, as gangs expand territory and continue to commit extrajudicial homicides, kidnappings and rapes.

Türk stated:

Alarming as they are, numbers cannot express the horrors Haitians are being forced to endure on a daily basis. I am horrified by the ever-increasing spread of gang attacks and other human rights abuses beyond the capital, and deeply concerned by their destabilising impact on other countries in the region.

Türk also warned against heavy-handed military solutions, calling for support of the UN Security Council’s Multinational Security Support (MSS), a security mission intended to promote peace, and full adherence to the UN Security Council’s arms embargo on Haiti.

Türk further appealed to both the Haitian government and the international community to rally behind a unified approach to enact peace. He stated: “The coming months will be crucial and will test the international community’s ability to take stronger, more coordinated action—action that will help determine the future stability of Haiti and the wider region.”

From January to May 2025, at least 2,680 people—including 54 children—were killed in Haiti, and a record 1.3 million people were displaced due to gang violence. The majority of the violence has occurred in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where 85 percent of the area is controlled by gangs, though the violence has proliferated into other Haitian locations within the last few months.

This increase continues a troubling trend in Haiti, where gang violence has climbed since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Gangs promptly exploited this disruption in country leadership, leading to a state of anarchy where gangs, such as G-9 and G-Pep, have since ruled as de facto authorities in many areas. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported unprecedented gang violence in 2024 and called for international assistance to save the Haitian people from the crisis just last month.