Between the beginning of April and the end of June, the armed violence in Haiti killed 1,520 people and has made 609 more, according to a new report on human rights in Haiti, which was published on Friday.
These numbers are similar to those of the first quarter of 2025 when 1,617 people died and 580 were injured.
“Gang attacks in the departments of Artibonita and Centro, and in the capital, continue to cause serious human rights violations and exacerbate an already humanitarian and already serious crisis,” said Ulrika Richardson, a humanitarian and resident coordinator of the UN in Haiti.
Expanding gang influence
The murder of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 caused widespread violence of gangs in the capital of Prince Port-Au. Today, the UN estimates that gangs control at least 85 percent of the city. In recent months, many have begun to expand their influence on the departments of the center and artibonite.
In June alone, 45,000 people were displaced in the center and the artibonite, which means that the total number of people displaced in these two departments totals more than 240,000, according to the International Organization for Migration (IIM).
Between April and June, the security forces were able to slow down the expansion of the gang in the capital, but the UN office in Haiti, Binuh. He pointed out that the situation remains exceptionally volatile.
In addition, gangs have continued to expand to artibonite and center, in some cases even beginning to establish governance sketches to consolidate territorial gains.
In Mirebalais, for example, two gangs that control the entrance and exit points of this city, organized street cleaning campaigns and house paint. However, because Mirebalais residents have fled to a large extent, these gangs had to recruit residents of their territory controlled in the capital.
As many gangs expand their territory, they have committed human rights violations, according to the UN, including extrajudicial murders, children’s farms, traffic, murder and group violation.
Group violation is now the predominant form of sexual violence, which represents 85 percent of all documented cases. In mid -May, two women in Cité Soleil were brutally raped in groups before being shot dead and burned in what seemed to be a perverse act of “justice” of gangs for entering a neighborhood outside the limits.
“The members of the gangs continued to resort to murders, rapes of gangs and kidnappings to maintain their control over the populations that live in areas under their influence,” said Binuh.
People killed and bodies burned with impunity
The UN has warned for a long time that gangs are not the only groups that commit human rights abuses and violations in Haiti: government security forces and local self -defense groups have also committed violations.
Of the 1,520 people killed and 609 wounds between April and June, most were in the capital or departments of the center and artibonite, with 24 percent of them killed or wounded by gang.
A particularly horrible incident took place at the end of May when the members of a gang in port prince cut the throats of 15 men between the ages of 70 and 80. The gang portraged this as a “sacrifice” for a voodoo ceremony and burned the bodies of older men at the end.
Gang safety operations represented 64 percent of deaths and injuries during this period, with 73 documented cases of summary executions and a third of deaths that occur as a result of explosive drones.
A prosecutor in Miragoâne killed 27 people whom he alleged that they were gang members between April and June, which brought the total number of executions with which he has committed impunity to 83 since 2022.
Personal defense groups, which have formed as a reaction against gangs and the inability of the security force to contain them, were responsible for 12 percent of those killed and injured. These groups have been especially active in Port-Au Prince and the Department of Artibonite.
At the end of May, one of the self -defense groups attacked the city of Petit -Rivière, using machetes to kill more than 55 people, mostly farmers, whom they accused of supporting a gang. These farmers were killed while attending a religious ceremony and their bodies were burned.
Respect human rights
The humanitarian situation in Haiti is increasingly serious, with more than 1.3 million displaced people and half of the population that faces food insecurity.
With the humanitarian response plan only 8 percent funded, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) is asking the international community to intensify financial support.
The report also urged the international community to continue increasing support for Haiti’s fight against gangs.
“The report calls the Haitian government, with the support of the international community, to strengthen the fight against gangs while strictly respecting human rights and standards on the use of force,” said the UN mission in Haiti.