Haiti’s gangs have ‘near-total control’ of the capital as violence escalates, U.N. says
The gangs have increased in power since the assassination of President Jenel Moses in July 2021 and previously estimated at 85% of the capital. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination.
A mission supported by the UN led by the Kenyan police arrived in Haiti last year to help suffocate the violence of the gangs, but the mission remains in sub-employed and sub-financial, with only 40% of the 2,500 staff members initially envisaged. The proposal of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in February so that the UN provides drones, fuel, soil and air transport and other non -lethal supports to the mission led by Kenya to the council.
In response to gangs, the UNUDC Waly said there had been rapid growth in the number and activities of private security companies and vigilant self -defense groups, some trying to protect their communities while others act illegally and collide with gangs.
“In the past three months,” said Jenca, “these groups have killed at least 100 men and a woman suspected of gang association or collaboration.”
He said that the last three months have also increased by gangs with the United Nations political mission by playing 364 incidents of sexual violence involving 378 survivors just from March to April.
A new United Nations expert report covering the period from October to February to February said that the gangs had exploited the political disorders and the disorganized response to the Haiti security crisis, highlighting political ambitions and allegations of corruption in competition in the Haiti transitional directors.
“While the expansion of territorial control brings gangs of additional sources of income and negotiation power,” said experts, “these attacks are also supported by individuals trying to destabilize the political transition from their own political objectives.”
A major result is that very little progress has been made to restore public security or implement the roadmap for the organization of national elections by February 2026, experts monitoring an arms embargo in Haiti and sanctions against the main gang leaders declared in the report to the Security Council.
With a low national police force confronted with acute tensions in its direction, an army that needs reconstruction and the limited capacity of multinational force, experts have warned that the gangs will continue “to have the upper hand unless international support is supplied stronger”.
As for vigilance groups, they said, they “often include local police, some of whom actively participate in human rights violations”.
Haitian national police also carried out “a worrying number of extrajudicial murders … with members of allegedly presumed gangs summarized,” said the experts, highlighting 281 summary executions by police units specialized in 2024, including 22 women and 8 children.
Despite the UN arms embargo in Haiti, the gangs continue to obtain more powerful weapons not only from regional civil markets, but police stocks in Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic, experts said.
