Haiti\u2019s residents are subjected to \u201cunremitting violence,\u201d according to Volker Tu\u0308rk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.<\/p>\n
In a report released Tuesday, Tu\u0308rk\u2019s office said gang violence killed more than 5,600 people in Haiti in 2024, a figure more than 1,000 deaths higher than 2023\u2019s toll.<\/p>\n
In addition to the deaths, UNHCR said more than 2,200 people were injured by gang violence and nearly 1,500 were kidnapped by gangs.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestoring the rule of law must be a priority,\u201d T\u00fcrk said. \u201cThese figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those horrors was an incident last month in which at least 207 people, many of them senior citizens, were killed by the Wharf Jeremie gang in Port-au-Prince after a gang leader accused the group of being responsible for his son\u2019s death from the group\u2019s alleged Vodou rituals.<\/p>\n
The gang is reported to have burned and mutilated many of the elderly Haitians\u2019 bodies to destroy any evidence leading back to the gang. Other bodies were thrown into the sea. This incident was \u201cone of the biggest massacres reported in Port-au-Prince in recent history,\u201d according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Other horrors in the report included more than 300 lynchings. Most of those lynched were gang members and people affiliated with them, with some of the lynchings \u201creportedly facilitated by Haitian police officers,\u201d according to the U.N. human rights report.<\/p>\n
The report also disclosed that last year, there were \u201c281 cases of alleged summary executions involving specialized police units.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has long been clear that impunity for human rights violations and abuses, as well as corruption, remain prevalent in Haiti,\u201d T\u00fcrk said.<\/p>\n
He also called for more logistical and financial support for the Kenya-led mission in Haiti so that it can \u201csuccessfully implement its mandate\u201d to deal with the unrest and violence in Haiti.<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrk also called for a halt to deportations to Haiti because the country is not safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe acute insecurity and resulting human rights crisis in the country simply do not allow for the safe, dignified and sustainable return of Haitians. And yet, deportations are continuing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
AP reports that Haiti\u2019s neighbor, the Dominican Republic, deported more than a quarter million people to Haiti last year.<\/p>\n
Kenya police is leading a multi national team in efforts to contain criminal gangs there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haiti\u2019s residents are subjected to \u201cunremitting violence,\u201d according to Volker Tu\u0308rk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In a report released Tuesday, Tu\u0308rk\u2019s office said gang violence killed more than 5,600 people in Haiti in 2024, a figure more than 1,000 deaths higher than 2023\u2019s toll. In addition to the deaths, UNHCR said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":288288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49426],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-288862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-worldnews"},"yoast_head":"\n