Haiti now needs 4,000 to 5,000 international police to help tackle gang violence that is targeting key individuals and hospitals, schools, banks and other critical institutions, William O’Neill, the UN rights expert for the Caribbean nation, said on Thursday.
In July last year, O’Neill said that Haiti needed 1,000 to 2,000 international police trained to deal with gangs.
However, the situation today is so much worse that double that number and more are needed to help the Haitian National Police regain control of security and curb human rights abuses, he said.
Photo: AFP
O’Neill spoke at a news conference launching a UN Human Rights Office report he helped produce, which called for immediate action to tackle the “cataclysmic” situation in Haiti as corruption, impunity and poor governance compounded by increasing gang violence erodes the rule of law and brings state institutions “close to collapse.”
The report, covering the five months ended last month, said that gangs continue to recruit and abuse boys and girls, with some children being killed for trying to escape.
Gangs also continue to use sexual violence “to brutalize, punish and control people,” the report said, citing women raped during gang attacks in neighborhoods, “in many cases after seeing their husbands killed in front of them.”
Last year, the number of people killed and injured as a result of gang violence increased significantly — with 4,451 killed and 1,668 injured, the report said.
The numbers have skyrocketed, with 1,554 killed and 826 injured as of Friday last week, it said.
As a result of the escalating gang violence, so-called “self-defense brigades” have taken justice into their own hands, it said.
“At least 528 cases of lynching were reported in 2023 and a further 59 in 2024,” it said.
The report reiterated the need for urgent deployment of a multinational security mission to help Haiti’s police stop the violence and restore the rule of law.
It urged tighter national and international controls to stem the trafficking of weapons and ammunition to gangs and others.
O’Neill, who was appointed by the Geneva-based UN human rights chief, said that the “alarming” targeting of key institutions and individuals began in the past four or five weeks — with 18 attacks on hospitals documented, attacks on schools including one set on fire three days ago and one of Haiti’s elite academic institutions set ablaze on Wednesday.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
The navy next month is expected to commission into service two more domestically built Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes, a source said yesterday. The Hsu Chiang (旭江, PGG-621) and the Wu Chiang (武江, PGG-623) would be officially commissioned in a ceremony early next month, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The corvettes, launched in February and June last year respectively, were delivered to the navy in February. They are the third and fourth Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes to be produced. The Tuo Chiang-class corvette is a domestically designed and manufactured class of fast and stealthy multipurpose corvette built for the
A total of 41 US military personnel were stationed in Taiwan as of December last year, a US congressional report said on Friday last week ahead of Tuesday’s passage of an aid package that included US$8 billion for Taiwan. The Congressional Research Service in a report titled Taiwan Defense Issues for Congress said that according to the US Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center, 41 US military personnel were assigned for duty in Taiwan. Although the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1979 included a vow to withdraw a military presence from Taiwan, “observers have indicated