Around 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes and thousands more have died.
A new UN human rights office report published Tuesday in Geneva details the impacts of the gangs’ growing reach on the human rights of Haitians, amid persistent and deadly violence: more than 5,500 people died as a result last year.
Gang expansion
During the same period, the gangs have expanded their operations beyond the capital, advancing to the outskirts and moving north towards the departments of Artibonite and Centro, the report states.
People displaced by violence in Haiti queue at an aid distribution site.
The gangs have been able toStrengthen strategic corridors and maintain control over critical maritime and land routes that support their financing. and operational resilience.”
Meanwhile, they have continued to terrorize the population by killing and kidnapping people, trafficking children, robbing illegal checkpoints, extorting businesses, and destroying and looting public and private property.
The gangs targeted people who were seen as cooperating with the police or challenging their authority. “Some victims were executed, their bodies often doused with gasoline and burned,” the report said.
Disproportionate use of force
Violence involves not only gangs, but also Haitian security forces, private security contractors and self-defense groups..
The report identified nearly 250 cases of “actual summary executions or attempted summary executions of suspected gang members or people believed to support gangs” as being carried out by police, using “unnecessary or disproportionate” force.
Concerns have also been raised about security operations carried out by a private military company, supposedly contracted by the Haitian government, which has used drone strikes and helicopter gunfire. There are some questions about the legality of this approach.
“Some, or even most, of these drone strikes and helicopter operations could be described as targeted killings, given the apparent predetermined, intentional, and deliberate use of lethal force against individuals specifically identified in advance,” the report says, and “It does not appear that the judicial authorities have opened any investigation. to establish the legality of these operations.”
Weapons and ammunition are often trafficked to Haiti along the same routes as drugs.
Self-defense groups and mobs armed with stones, machetes and, increasingly, high-caliber firearms have engaged in so-called “popular justice”, which has led to people suspected of belonging to gangs being lynched, sometimes “allegedly encouraged, supported or facilitated by police elements”.
UN support
The UN has continually emphasized that restoring security is essential to the stabilization of Haiti, but is not sufficient on its own.
Without progress on governance, justice, accountability and social services, especially for young people, any progress on security will be fragile.
Sustained international support is critical to breaking the cycle of violence and instability and supporting a Haitian-led effort to restore security.
The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), established in 2025 and mandated to be 5,000 strong, is expected to play a key supporting role.
In early March, Daniela Kroslak was named head of the newly created United Nations Support Office in Haiti (UNSOH), which will provide logistical support to the GSF.