William O’Neill, a UN human rights expert, warned that gang violence is spreading throughout Haiti on the backdrop of the UN-backed mission to combat criminals still lacks funding and personnel.
The Haitian National Police continue to lack the logistical and technical capabilities to combat the gangs that are encroaching on new territories, as weapons and ammunition flow into Haiti despite the international embargo, according to O’Neill, who concluded his visit to the country this week. O’Neill said at a news conference in Port-au-Prince:
Areas previously not impacted by gang violence are now directly impacted, with galloping inflation, lack of basic goods and flows of internally displaced people. The human rights and humanitarian consequences are dramatic.
Apart from, the UN-backed mission, led by 400 Kenyan police officers who arrived in Haiti at the end of June, has deployed less than a quarter of the promised contingent and has less than two weeks remaining of its original year-long mandate. Antigua, Barbados, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Chad, the Bahamas, and Jamaica committed to providing at least 2,900 troops to assist the Haitian police.
The expert warned of rampant inflation and a shortage of basic goods as nearly 5 million people suffer from hunger. In addition, the population continues to endure sexual violence, displacement, and children face forced recruitment into gangs to carry out attacks on government institutions and police operations.
In recent years, at least 700,000 people have been left homeless due to the ongoing gang violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas, with more than half of them being children. Violence has worsened to such an extent that from April to the end of June, at least 1,379 people were killed or injured in Haiti, and another 428 were kidnapped.
The country’s population is facing humanitarian issues, particularly due to corruption and a weak government. Less than a third of Haiti’s healthcare services are functioning properly. O’Neill called on the authorities to hold accountable “to fight corruption and bad governance, which continues to plunge the country into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
