PORT-AU-PRINCE: The United Nations’ top human rights official urged on Friday (Feb 10) for an international force to be deployed to violence-ravaged Haiti, describing the island nation’s multiple crises as a “living nightmare”.
Wrapping up a two-day visit around the country, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called on world leaders “to urgently consider the deployment of a time-bound specialised support force”, which Haiti’s prime minister has also urged since last year.
Haiti has been for years mired in a vicious cycle of humanitarian, economic and health crises exacerbated by brutal gang violence.
According to a UN report released Friday, the Cite Soleil commune in the capital Port-au-Prince has seen a sharp increase in mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks in recent months, rendering life unlivable.
“The findings of this report are horrifying: it paints a picture of how people are being harassed and terrorised by criminal gangs for months without the State being able to stop it,” Turk said in a press release. “It can only be described as a living nightmare.”
In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cite Soleil alone, over 260 people were killed in gang violence during the second half of 2022 and nearly 60 cases of gang rape of women and girls were recorded, according to the study.
The report highlighted the case of a woman identified as Rose, a pregnant mother of four who was severely beaten and raped in front of her children by gang members who earlier killed her husband. Before leaving the house, the gang members set it on fire, the report said.
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