More than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year as a Kenya-led UN mission struggled to contain widespread gang violence, officials said on Tuesday.
The number of homicides increased by more than 20 percent compared to all of 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office. In addition, more than 2,200 people were injured and almost 1,500 were kidnapped, it is stated.
“These numbers alone cannot capture the absolute horrors taking place in Haiti, but they show the ongoing violence that people are exposed to,” Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.
The victims included two journalists and a policeman who were killed when gunmen opened fire on a crowd gathered on Christmas Eve for the long-awaited reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital, which gangs had earlier forced to close.
In all, gang violence has left more than 700,000 Haitians homeless in recent years, with many crammed into makeshift and unsanitary shelters after gunmen leveled their homes.
“I saw them killing family members and there was nothing I could do to save them,” recalled Garry Joseph, 55, who now lives in an abandoned government office with hundreds of others who fled his neighborhood. “They were all running for their lives the night we had to leave.”
Last year’s casualties also include more than 200 people killed in early December in a gang-controlled slum, many of them elderly Haitians, after a gang leader sought to avenge his son’s death, which he suspected was caused by witchcraft, according to the U.N. in . It was one of the largest massacres recorded in Port-au-Prince, the capital, in recent history.
At least 110 people were killed in Haiti’s Cite Soleil slum when a gang leader targeted elderly people he suspected of causing their child’s illness through witchcraft, the National Network for Human Rights said.
Others killed last year included 315 suspected gang members or people associated with them who were lynched, and more than 280 people were killed by police in alleged summary executions, the UN said.
Turk is calling for more logistical and financial support for the UN-backed mission, which began in early June.
About 400 policemen from Kenya are leading the mission, and a few days ago they were joined by about 150 military policemen from Central America, mostly from Guatemala. Several other countries have sent a handful of personnel or pledged to do so, but the total remains far below the 2,500 officers expected for the mission.
Commercial flights suspended
In another blow to Haiti’s stability, Sunrise Airways announced Monday it would temporarily suspend flights to and from Port-au-Prince, 85 percent of which are controlled by gangs. They said the decision was based on circumstances beyond their control, adding that the safety of passengers and crew was a priority.
This leaves the country’s main international airport without commercial flights for the third time this year.
“You can’t go anywhere,” Joseph said, noting that the gangs also control all the main roads in and out of Port-au-Prince and randomly open fire on public transport. “No one is safe in this country, especially in Port-au-Prince… Everyone is just counting their days.”
In November, the Port-au-Prince airport was closed after gangs opened fire and hit three planes, including a Spirit Airlines plane it was mid-flight, injuring the flight attendant.
Although the airport has since reopened, the US Federal Aviation Administration in December extended the ban on US flights to the Haitian capital until March 12 for security reasons. The incident also prompted Canada to update its travel advisory to warn against all travel to Haiti due to the threat of gang violence, and Air Transat suspended all flights to and from Port-au-Prince until the end of April.
Rony Jean-Bernard, a 30-year-old former motorcycle taxi driver who now lives in an overcrowded shelter, said gang violence has forced him to rely on help.
“I live on bread and sugar most of the time,” he said, noting that government officials stopped distributing free meals at his shelter about four months ago.
“Every day is like darkness. I don’t see where life is taking me with this government promising things will get better. I hear that every day.”
As the violence escalates, Turk has called on all nations to halt deportations to Haiti.
“The 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 continue,” he said.
Under the administration of US President Joe Biden, about 27,800 Haitians have been deported, according to Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data.
Meanwhile, the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, deported more than a quarter of a million people to Haiti last year as part of an ongoing crackdown on migrants.
