Explained | What is happening in Haiti and why has the UN called for a rapid action force?

Gang violence killed more than 200 Haitians in July alone while a resurgence of cholera has taken 16 lives this month as health facilities struggle to function

The story so far: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sent a letter to the UN Security Council calling for a multinational “rapid action force" led by a member state to help Haiti’s police control widespread gang violence, which has killed hundreds of people in recent months.

Violence by armed gangs is raging in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and several other parts of the country amid a political vacuum, with armed groups having taken control of most of the capital and the biggest fuel terminal, blockading basic services such as food, water, and health care. The situation has been worsened by a cholera outbreak and widespread protests against the current government.

Haiti is a country of nearly 11 million mostly French and Creole-speaking people in the Caribbean, bordered by the Dominican Republic. Once the richest of the French colonies, Haiti is now the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, prone to national disasters and political instability. After being under French rule for two centuries, Haiti became the first postcolonial black republic in 1804 but had to pay reparations to France for over 120 years. It was also under United States occupation from 1915 to 1934, when the then U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt withdrew troops from the country.

It saw multiple unstable governments before and after U.S. occupation and dictatorial rule by François Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude —a 29-year dictatorship which began in 1957. The Centre for Foreign Relations notes that their reign was marked by widespread corruption and human rights violations, leaving nearly 30,000 people dead or missing.

Haiti got its first democratically elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide in 1991 but he was deposed twice in coups, and exiled in 2004.

Just as Haiti started to develop and head toward political stability, it was struck by a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the effects of which the country is still reeling from today. The country’s former President Michel Martelly took charge after the 2011 election which were shrouded in allegations of meddling. The term of the country’s legislature and president ended in 2015, but Mr. Martelly ruled by decree for over a year.

In 2016, in a general election with a voter turnout of 21%, Jovenel Moïse, a member of Mr. Martelly’s party, was elected President while a money laundering investigation was underway against him. Mr. Moïse faced multiple and widespread public protests during his term for high taxes and fuel prices, and in 2019 the country’s Superior Court of Auditors alleged that Mr. Moïse and other officials embezzled millions of dollars. In July 2021, Mr. Moïse was assassinated at his private residence in Port-au-Prince by unidentified armed assailants.