Since October 2024, escalating gang violence outside Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, has claimed over 1,000 lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee, threatening to destabilize Haiti and other Caribbean countries, according to a UN human rights report. The report comes as Haiti teeters on the brink of collapse, and at least half of the population, or 6 million people, including 3.3 million children, require humanitarian assistance.
The report by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) details the evolution of violent gang incidents beyond Port-au-Prince from October 2024 to June 2025 and the resulting loss of life and mass displacement.
The UN report shows the expansion of gang territorial control in recent months, especially in the Lower Artibonite and Centre departments.
It states that the gangs appear to be pursuing the strategic objective of establishing a presence in areas along key roadways crossing the Centre and Artibonite departments, particularly aiming to control routes connecting the capital to northern regions and the border with the Dominican Republic in the east.
“Human rights abuses outside Port-au-Prince are intensifying in areas of the country where the presence of the State is extremely limited. The international community must strengthen its support to the authorities, who bear the primary responsibility for protecting the Haitian population,” said Ulrika Richardson, acting head of BINUH and UN Resident Coordinator, in a statement on Friday.
From October 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, at least 1,018 people were killed, 213 were injured, and 620 were abducted in the Artibonite and Centre regions, as well as in Ganthier and Fonds Parisien, which are located west of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (PPMA), according to the report.
During the same period, the total number of killings in Haiti was 4,864. Between January 1 and June 30, at least 3,141 people were killed. Most of the fatalities were men.
The report notes that the mass killing in Pont Sondé, in the Lower Artibonite region, in October 2024, which left over 100 people dead, marked a major turning point in the cycle of violence between gangs and so-called "self-defense" groups.
Several other mass killings followed, causing mass displacement, including in Mirebalais, a town in the Centre department, where all 100,000 residents fled earlier this year.
The Haitian authorities deployed specialized police units supported by the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which slowed the gangs' advances to some extent. However, ultimately, given their lack of resources, the authorities have been unable to reassert control over the affected areas.
Last week, UN officials briefing the Security Council warned that the crisis is deepening nationwide, and the risk of total state collapse is growing. The MSS mission is operating at less than 30 percent capacity due to funding and personnel shortages, with only 991 staff deployed, far short of the anticipated 2,500.
Against this backdrop, human rights abuses by self-defense groups have risen. The report says that summary executions involving Haitian security forces have also been committed against individuals accused of supporting gangs.
“Caught in the middle of this unending horror story are the Haitian people, who are at the mercy of horrific violence by gangs and exposed to human rights violations from the security forces and abuses by the so-called ‘self-defense’ groups,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
“The human rights violations and abuses that we have documented are further evidence of why Haiti and the international community urgently need to step up to end the violence.”
According to the UN report, the expansion of gang territorial control poses a major risk of spreading violence and increasing transnational trafficking of arms and people.
Among its recommendations, it calls on the Haitian authorities to provide the police with the necessary resources to combat the gangs while fully respecting international human rights law. The report also calls for the establishment of specialized judicial units to combat corruption and mass crimes, including sexual violence, as soon as possible.
Additionally, it calls on the international community to maintain BINUH’s full operational capacity, so the office can advise and support the Haitian government in strengthening good governance and ensuring respect for and promotion of human rights.
The report states that strengthening the MSS mission and fully implementing the arms embargo are equally essential to restoring security and the rule of law in Haiti.
To prevent rapid destabilization of the subregion, the international community must also strengthen its support to international and national organizations that assist vulnerable groups.
Haiti is facing a severe humanitarian crisis driven by escalating violence and the subsequent collapse of essential services. Armed groups have tightened their control over the capital and - as the report shows - spread far beyond it, leaving the population devastated by gang violence.
At least 1.3 million Haitians have been forced to flee their homes due to violence, half of whom are children. Since last December, the number of displaced people has increased by 25 percent. Haiti currently has the highest percentage of its population displaced by violence — 11 percent.
The country ranks among the world’s top five hunger hotspots, where people face extreme hunger, starvation, and death. The situation will only worsen unless urgent action is swiftly taken to de-escalate conflict, stop displacement, and provide full-scale aid.
With over half of the population struggling with acute food insecurity, Haiti is facing a severe hunger crisis. The latest food security report shows that a record 5.7 million people are acutely hungry due to relentless gang violence and an ongoing economic collapse.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), over 2 million people are experiencing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4). The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that over 1 million Haitian children are exposed to IPC Phase 4.
Moreover, according to the UN Human Rights Office, children in Haiti are routinely recruited to join gangs. Haiti also is among the five countries with the highest number of child victims of sexual violence and the highest number of grave violations against children.
Despite the catastrophic human rights situation and dire humanitarian crisis in Haiti, more than 121,000 people were deported to the Caribbean country between January and June of this year.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Türk, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, and the UN expert on human rights in Haiti, Bill O'Neill, have all called for states to refrain from forcibly returning individuals to Haiti.
Further information
Full text: Intensification of criminal violence in Lower Artibonite, the Centre Department and regions located east of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, report, published July 10, 2025
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/2025-july-artibonite-and-mirebalais-EN.pdf