Since the end of April, clashes have intensified between these groups that have the objective of seizing territory in Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. Strong denunciations by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner
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Members of the G9 gang peacefully protested in July in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, over the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse ( Victor Moriyama for The New York Times)
A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated that nearly 200 people died in Haiti last month as a result of the increase of violence due to clashes between gangs in the country’s capital.
The United Nations numbers speak for themselves: 188 dead, 16,828 displaced, 113 injured, 12 missing and 49 kidnapped people for whom ransom was demanded.
At the end of April, confrontations between heavily armed rival gangs with the aim of seizing territory in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, intensified. This generated panic in the populationand, for that reason, more and more people, including children, are leaving their homes to take refuge in temporary accommodation.
The outbreak of violence spread to dozens of neighborhoods, with hundreds of families caught in the crossfire. According to the OCHA report, at least 92 of the 188 killed between April 24 and May 26 were not gang members.
Increasing violence due to clashes between gangs left almost 200 dead last month in Haiti (EFE)
Furthermore, following the UN body, the number of deaths could be much higher because access to the different districts is very difficult.
“Armed violence has reached unimaginable and intolerable levels in Haiti”, said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, earlier this month, urging the Haitian authorities to restore the rule of law and calling on the international community to redouble its efforts.
The testimonies compiled and cited by Bachelet included beheadings, burning of bodies and the murder of minors accused of being informants for rival gangs. The gangs too children as young as 10 years old have been gang raped, a tactic used to punish people living in areas under rival control, Bachelet said.
OCHA indicated that Although the violence seemed to have subsided in recent days, the situation remained “highly volatile”.
The murder last year of the former president Jovenel Moise plunged the country into political chaos, with opposition groups refusing to recognize the appointment of the current prime minister, Ariel Henry. In addition to the insecurity and political crisis, Haiti is also suffering from high levels of inflation and food insecurity.
Street children are recruited by gangs (EFE)
Armed gangs reinforce street children
Shelters for street children in Port-au-Prince are running empty due to gangs , who are recruiting minors to participate in the urban war that has terrorized the Haitian capital for a month.
From the escalation of the sociopolitical and economic crisis marked by the multiplication of armed groups, kidnappings and massacres, few children are seen on the streets of the metropolitan area of the Haitian capital.
“The soldiers of the armed groups come to recruit us at night”, a minor who swarms through the central Champ de Mars square, near the National Palace and where there have always been many street children, told the EFE news agency.
In that area, a shelter for these minors was opened in 2013, the first of its kind within a rehabilitation program, but now it is practically empty and abandoned.
“There are about 48 people here. They spend the day somewhere else and come every night to sleep”, said one of the adults who spend the night in the place designed to accommodate up to 400 people.
< i>The full report (in English):