Gang violence killed more than 5,600 people in Haiti in 2024: UN
Al Jazeera
Violent gangs control most of the Caribbean country’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
More than 5,600 people were killed and thousands more injured or kidnapped in 2024 due to soaring levels of gang violence in Haiti, the United Nations said.
In a statement released on Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk condemned the “absolute horrors” faced by the population of the Caribbean country noting rights abuses and corruption are also rife.
Armed gangs maintain control of most of the capital Port-au-Prince following an outbreak of violence last year. At the same time, the police are also accused of perpetrating violence against gang suspects, as the ongoing conflict serves to make worse the political instability that has plagued the island nation for decades.
“These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected,” Volker said.
The UN statement noted that at least 207 people were killed in early December in a massacre orchestrated by the leader of the powerful Wharf Jeremie gang in the Cite Soleil area of the capital.
