The United Nations says the security situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate, as gang violence is growing and major crimes reach record levels. Briefing the UN Security Council (SC) Monday, the UN special envoy to the country, María Isabel Salvador, also stressed the enormous significance of SC resolution 2699, adopted earlier this month, authorizing the establishment and deployment of a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.
On October 2, the Security Council voted to authorize an international force for an initial period of one year to support Haiti’s police amid the gang-driven security crisis in the Caribbean country.
“The security situation on the ground continues to deteriorate as growing gang violence plunges the lives of the people of Haiti into disarray and major crimes are rising sharply to new record highs,” Salvador, who also heads the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), said in her briefing.
She added that gangs carry out killings and sexual violence, including collective rape and mutilation, every day without support for victims or appropriate justice. Adding to the complexity are vigilante groups, she said.
"Between 24 April and 30 September, BINUH registered the lynching of at least 395 alleged gang members across all ten departments of Haiti by the so called “Bwa Kale” vigilante movement," the UN envoy said.
According to BINUH, major crimes, including killings and kidnappings, surge in Haiti at unprecedented rates. Between July 1 and September 30, there were 1,239 homicides, against 577 reported during the same period in 2022. There were 701 victims of abductions from July to September, a 244 percent increase compared with the same period in 2022.
Against the backdrop of the deteriorating security situation, she said that the support by the Multinational Security Support mission will be crucial to helping the Haitian National Police re-establish security conditions to hold elections.
Salvador told SC Members that she is engaging with political stakeholders to encourage a national dialogue as a path to credible and inclusive elections, and in turn the restoration of democratic institutions and the rule of law.
“Nevertheless, significant differences persist, all of which are critical to placing Haiti on a clear path to elections. I am concerned to see that the efforts towards elections are not moving at a desired pace,” Salvador noted.
The UN envoy stressed that re-establishing control by the Haitian National Police was a prerequisite for holding credible and inclusive elections.
“The deployment of the MSS brings hope that the situation will improve. The Haitian National Police can only achieve lasting results when public security is restored, and the State resumes its functions, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods prone to gang activity,” she said.
“When approving resolution 2699, the expectations of millions of Haitians at home and abroad were raised. A glimmer of hope was cast towards finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel that is not an oncoming train,” Salvador said.
Catherine Russell, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), also briefed the Security Council Monday, noting: "Today, I am speaking both as UNICEF Executive Director, and as the designated Principal Advocate on the Humanitarian Situation in Haiti for the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC)."
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the highest-level humanitarian coordination forum of the UN system, brings together the executive heads of 18 UN and non-UN organizations.
Russell reported that the crisis in Haiti is growing worse by the day and half the population needs humanitarian relief, but the UN has received barely 25 percent of the $720 million needed for the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).
"But half of those in need of assistance aren’t getting it – in large part because of insecurity and insufficient humanitarian funding. Basic services are on the verge of collapse. And in some communities, life is more dangerous now than it has ever been," the UNICEF chief said.
An estimated two million people, including 1.6 million women and children, live in areas that are effectively controlled by gangs. Meanwhile, these armed groups are expanding their operations outside the capital, perpetrating extreme levels of violence in both Port-au-Prince and neighboring Artibonite.
"Children are being injured or killed in the crossfire, some even on their way to school. Others are being forcibly recruited, or they are joining armed groups out of sheer desperation. Communities are being terrorized … and women and girls are being targeted with extreme levels of gender-based and sexual violence," she said.
Armed groups have also strangled major transport routes from the capital Port-au-Prince to the rest of the country, where most of the population resides, destroying livelihoods and restricting access to essential services.
"This life-threatening mix of conditions has caused an intensifying food security and nutrition crisis – especially for children," she stressed.
Russell reported an unprecedented 30 percent increase since last year in the number of children suffering from severe wasting to over 115,000.
“Nearly a quarter of Haiti’s children are chronically malnourished,” she added, and those severely malnourished are five times more likely to die from cholera, which continues to plague the country.
The head of UNICEF called on the international community to prioritize increasing flexible humanitarian funding, and on all to urge international financial institutions and development partners to keep Haitian social sectors and services in operation.
In Haiti, millions of people need humanitarian aid to fight hunger, amid the deteriorating security situation. The UN warns that humanitarian access is seriously compromised by insecurity.
Violent armed gangs control much of the capital, gain increasing control of Port-au-Prince, and have spread to other parts of the country. They have carried out massacres and kidnappings, human trafficking and sexual violence. The deteriorating security situation has also aggravated the humanitarian crisis, with almost half the population, around 4.35 million people, experiencing acute hunger.
The United Nations estimates that more than 5.2 million people - 46 percent of the population - require humanitarian aid this year. Among those in need are nearly 3 million children – the highest number on record.
Kidnappings, killings and gang violence have worsened the economic situation and increased insecurity, particularly in the capital. Gangs also control strategic access routes in the country and have expanded their criminal activities throughout Haiti.
Armed groups commit serious abuses against the population, forcing entire communities to flee. Some 200,000 people have been internally displaced due to violence since 2022, and tens of thousands have attempted to flee the country.
Violence, widespread poverty, rising costs of living, low agricultural production, and expensive food imports have exacerbated existing food insecurity in Haiti, leaving many women, men, and children suffering from hunger and malnutrition.
According to the latest IPC analysis, 4.35 million people - more than 40 percent of the population – are acutely food insecure between August 2023 and February 2024. About 1.4 million people are suffering from emergency levels of hunger.
Further information
Full text: Briefing to the Security Council by Ms. María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti and Head of BINUH New York, 23 October 2023, BINUH press release, published October 23, 2023
https://binuh.unmissions.org/en/briefing-security-council-ms-mar%C3%ADa-isabel-salvador-special-representative-secretary-general-haiti
Full text: UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell UN Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Haiti, UNICEF press release, published October 23, 2023
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-un-security-council-briefing