Gang Violence

Gang violence in Haiti continues to have a devastating impact on the country's population, according to a new human rights report by the United Nations political mission in Haiti (BINUH). Tuesday's report, which covers the last quarter of 2024, says at least 1,732 people were killed and 411 injured as a result of direct gang violence, as well as self-defense groups and police operations.

Extreme violence and gross human rights abuses, including mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks, have sharply increased in Cité Soleil on the outskirts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, said a UN report published Friday, creating “a living nightmare” for thousands. The report comes as 5.2 million people – nearly half of the Haitian population – are in need of humanitarian aid, including 2.6 million children.

A new United Nations report published Tuesday details a further, shocking rise in gang violence in Haiti as criminal gangs forge alliances and expand to rural areas previously considered safe – killing, raping, kidnapping, and destroying property, among other human rights abuses. The report, released by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), calls for the urgent deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission authorized by the UN Security Council in October, in accordance with international human rights norms and standards.

The latest food security report on Haiti - out this week - shows that a record 5.7 million people - more than half of all Haitians - are expected to experience acute hunger between now and June 2025, driven by relentless gang violence and ongoing economic collapse. Rising armed violence has also fueled massive displacement as armed gangs seek to expand their control, forcing more than one million people from their homes.

According to new data published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 1.3 million people are now internally displaced in Haiti, which is a 24 percent increase since December 2024. With this surge, Haiti has the highest number of people ever displaced by violence, and internally displaced people (IDPs) now represent 11 percent of the country's population of 11.9 million.

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.

The head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Monday that 3 million Haitian children caught up in rampant gang violence are in need of humanitarian assistance, including thousands who are at risk of dying from severe malnutrition. Meanwhile, a sharp increase in the number of wounded has put enormous pressure on the few functioning hospitals in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, as they run dangerously low on medical supplies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned.

More than one million people are now internally displaced in Haiti, according to new figures released Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The latest data shows that 1,041,000 people are struggling amid a worsening humanitarian crisis - many of them forced to flee multiple times. According to IOM, children bear the greatest burden of forced displacement, accounting for more than half of all displaced people.

The European Union's Humanitarian Office (ECHO) reports that armed gangs in Haiti attacked the town of Petite-Riviere in the Artibonite department on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, injuring 60 and setting fire to 20 houses. Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that humanitarian agencies are scaling up life-saving assistance in other parts of Haiti, where armed violence continues to hamper access to health care.

Nearly 580,000 people, including 300,000 children, are internally displaced across Haiti, a 60 percent increase since March, according to the latest data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The UN agency says the rise is due to the deterioration of the security situation in the metropolitan area of Port-Au-Prince, the country's capital, particularly between the end of February and April. Haiti is now the country with the largest number of displacements globally due to crime-related violence.

As brutal gang violence continues to spill over from the capital Port-au-Prince into the Artibonite and other departments of Haiti, the United Nations Secretary-General on Friday joined the Haitian Prime Minister in strongly condemning a horrific gang attack in the town of Pont Sondé, outside the Haitian capital, that left at least 70 people dead, including at least 10 women and three infants. Guterres also called for urgent support for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that the humanitarian crisis in Haiti continues to worsen, largely due to ongoing violence. According to an OCHA update on Friday, more than 700,000 people are displaced in the country, more than half of whom are children, with the latest violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, displacing an additional 12,000 people in recent weeks.

The number of people displaced by gang-related violence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, has tripled in the past five months, according to a report published this week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The assessment, conducted between June and August 2022, identified over 113,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haiti. Of these, 96,000 men, women and children fled insecurity in the capital, due to inter-gang violence and social unrest.

Children make up about half of all armed gang members in Haiti, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday, calling for their protection to be stepped up. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is ramping up its operations in Haiti in the face of a hunger crisis caused mainly by violence and displacement. Some 5.5 million Haitians are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024, a number that is expected to rise.

The United Nations says it remains deeply concerned about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Haiti amid ongoing gang violence and sporadic clashes between heavily armed gangs and police forces in some parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. At least 15,000 people have been displaced by the clashes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The newly appointed United Nations Special Representative for Haiti has said that the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country demands that Haiti remains at the center of international attention and needs action now. In her first briefing to the UN Security Council Wednesday, Maria Isabel Salvador stressed that gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as outside the city.

As Haiti faces a worsening conflict involving heavily armed gangs, the number of people killed, injured or kidnapped has surged in 2023, according to a new United Nations report. The number of reported homicides last year increased by nearly 120 percent compared with 2022, with 4,789 victims reported during 2023. Haiti now has a homicide rate of 40.9 per 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world.