Haiti

Vigilante killings are surging in Haiti's capital and surrounding areas, where an additional five men were slain and set on fire Tuesday by a crowd that left one of the bodies near a police station in an upscale community.

[…] Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and outside the city, with a shocking increase in criminality and abuses, and a police force that is unable to handle the situation.

[…] Widespread insecurity and extreme violence continued to be at the forefront of the public debate as the Haitian people faced escalating levels of kidnapping and violent crimes perpetrated by gangs, including the use of rape as a weapon.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Tuesday calling for the appointment of an independent rights expert on Haiti, amid mounting concern over deadly gang violence engulfing the country, threatening livelihoods, and pushing half the population into hunger. The current resolution, calling for “coordinated and targeted international action”, was sponsored by Haiti itself.

A specialized force must be deployed to urgently help Haitian authorities tackle a tsunami of gang violence, as rapes, sniper killings, and kidnappings become daily threats, the spokesperson for the UN rights chief said on Tuesday. … In the first two weeks of March alone, clashes among gangs left at least 208 dead, 164 injured, and 101 kidnapped.

Increasingly sophisticated and high-calibre firearms and ammunition are being trafficked into Haiti, fuelling an ongoing surge of gang violence that has plagued residents for months, according to a new UN assessment released on Thursday.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of María Isabel Salvador of Ecuador as his Special Representative for Haiti and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).

Caribbean leaders attending an annual trade bloc meeting say they will not send a force to Haiti to help stop worsening gang violence in that country. The spiraling violence in Haiti has been a key topic at the 15-member CARICOM meeting in the Bahamas with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry asking for an international military intervention to stop the gang attacks in his country.

Top officials from Canada, the U.S. and Haiti met Wednesday behind closed doors to talk about the spiraling chaos in Haiti, a topic expected to dominate an annual Caribbean trade bloc meeting that opened in the Bahamas.

Extreme violence and gross human rights abuses, including mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks, have sharply increased in Cité Soleil on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, said a UN report published on Friday.