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17-07-2022
PORT-AU-PRINCE: The UN human rights office has expressed concern about rising violence around Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, saying 99 people have been reported killed in recent fighting between rival gangs in the Cite Soleil district alone.
The warning on Saturday came hours after the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution renewing the mandate of a UN office in the Caribbean nation and calling on all countries to stop the transfer of small arms, light weapons and ammunition to anyone there supporting gang violence and criminal activity.
UN humanitarian agencies said they were ready to help embattled communities once it is safe to do so.
“We have so far documented, from January to the end of June, 934 killings, 684 injuries and 680 kidnappings across the capital,” Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Saturday.
In addition, “Over a five-day period, from 8-12 July, at least 234 more people were killed or injured in gang-related violence in the Cite Soleil area of the city.”
He said most of the victims “were not directly involved in gangs” but were targeted by them.
Separately, the UN’s humanitarian affairs office reported that 99 of the recent casualties in Cite Soleil were deaths.
Laurence called on gangs to halt the violence, while also urging Haitian authorities to ensure that fundamental human rights are “placed at the front and center of their responses to the crisis. The fight against impunity and sexual violence, along with the strengthening of human rights monitoring and reporting, must remain a priority”, he said.
The Security Council resolution drafted by the United States and Mexico was approved 15-0 Friday. It demanded an immediate cessation of gang violence and criminal activities, a point stressed by China.
“The heavily armed gangs are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their actions, conducting simultaneous, coordinated and organized attacks in different areas,” Laurence said.
The government, he said, has a duty to protect citizens’ right to life even from threats that come from private entities.
The UN agencies said some gangs even deny access to drinking water and food in order to control the population, aggravating malnutrition.
US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills said the new resolution will allow the UN mission to promote political dialogue and bolster the capacity of the Haitian National Police to control gang violence and protect human rights.
A year after the unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, gang violence has grown worse and many Haitians have tried to flee a country that seems to be in economic and social freefall. Attempts to form a coalition government have faltered, and efforts to hold general elections have stalled.
The United Nations has been involved in Haiti on and off since 1990, and the last UN peacekeeping mission was in the country from 2004 until October 2017. The political mission now there advises Haiti’s government on promoting political stability and good governance.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has threatened to impose targeted sanctions against criminal gangs and human rights abusers in Haiti, as it unanimously passed a resolution on Friday that extended a UN mission to the Caribbean nation for another year.
While China voted in favor of the resolution, which extended the so-called BINUH mission until July 15, 2023, and called on countries to stop a flow of guns to Haiti, it expressed disappointment that the council had not imposed a formal arms embargo on Haitian gangs.
“We hope that this will not send any wrong signals to the gangs,” China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council, adding that Beijing would continue to push for a UN embargo.
Haiti has seen a surge in gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in early July 2021, which fuelled political instability and sparked fierce battles between rival gangs for control of parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The UN’s World Food Program warned earlier this week that hunger would likely rise amid the escalating attacks, which have displaced thousands of residents and paralyzed key roads and transport links across the country.
Dozens of people have been killed in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Cite Soleil since last Friday amid the gang violence, with a local human rights organization saying on Wednesday that at least 89 had been killed while 16 others were reported missing. (Reuters)
