Over 5,600 killed last year in Haiti gang violence, says UN

UN reports soaring gang violence in Haiti, with over 5,600 dead in 2024, highlighting need for urgent action.

Soaring gang violence in Haiti left over 5,600 people dead last year — over 1,000 more than in 2023 — while thousands more were injured or kidnapped, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Violent gangs control most of the capital Port-au-Prince. The poor Caribbean country has been mired for decades by political instability, made worse in recent years by gangs that have grown in strength.

“These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Despite a Kenyan-led police support mission, backed by the United States and UN, violence has continued to burgeon.

Tuesday’s statement said 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.

Many of the victims were older people accused of involvement in voodoo and accused by a gang leader of poisoning his child. The suspects were taken to a “training centre” where many were dismembered or burned after being killed.

The UN rights office in 2024 had documented 315 lynchings of gang members and people allegedly associated with gangs, on some occasions reportedly facilitated by Haitian police officers.