Haiti

Haiti's capital could become overrun by criminal gangs if the international community does not step up aid to a United Nations-backed security mission there, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warned in a report Wednesday. More money, equipment and personnel are needed for the Kenya-led international force, Guterres said, adding that any further delays risk the "catastrophic" collapse of Haiti's security institutions … .

Haiti is showing signs of progress on the political front despite serious setbacks in terms of security, the Special Representative and Head of the UN office in the country, BINUH, told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

Kenya sent more than 200 police officers to Haiti on Saturday, providing backup to an understaffed security mission in the Caribbean country where rampant gang violence has displaced more than a million people. Some 10 countries have together pledged over 3,100 troops for Haiti as part of a U.N.-backed anti-gang force, but few have so far deployed.

Surging gang violence in Haiti has caused a threefold rise in the number of people uprooted from their homes in a year, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Tuesday, in a call for “sustained humanitarian assistance right now to save and protect lives”.

At least 5,601 people were killed in gang violence in Haiti last year, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday, appealing for greater efforts by the authorities and the international community to address the root causes. 

A contingent of security forces from Guatemala and El Salvador arrived in Haiti's capital Friday to reinforce a long-delayed United Nations-backed mission tasked with restoring security amid a bloody conflict with armed gangs.

The Security Council today received a briefing on its sanctions regime for Haiti and heard a call for stronger measures from the country’s representative, who reported a surge in homicides and a tripling of kidnappings this year amid arms embargo violations.

At least 110 mostly elderly people have been brutally murdered by gang members in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, according to a human rights group.

In this interview, Gloria Blaise, Ph.D., Director of Research Development at Haïti Policy House, discusses how the MSS [Multinational Security Support] mission has been received so far in Haiti and how the mission could build trust with Haitian communities.

The head of the United Nations children's agency said Monday that children make up about half of all armed gang members in Haiti and called for their enhanced protection.