Haiti crisis requires foreign police, UN expert O’Neill says

Haiti now needs 4,000 to 5,000 international police to help tackle gang violence that is targeting key individuals and hospitals, schools, banks and other critical institutions, William O’Neill, the UN rights expert for the Caribbean nation, said on Thursday.

In July last year, O’Neill said that Haiti needed 1,000 to 2,000 international police trained to deal with gangs.

However, the situation today is so much worse that double that number and more are needed to help the Haitian National Police regain control of security and curb human rights abuses, he said.

O’Neill spoke at a news conference launching a UN Human Rights Office report he helped produce, which called for immediate action to tackle the “cataclysmic” situation in Haiti as corruption, impunity and poor governance compounded by increasing gang violence erodes the rule of law and brings state institutions “close to collapse.”

The report, covering the five months ended last month, said that gangs continue to recruit and abuse boys and girls, with some children being killed for trying to escape.

Gangs also continue to use sexual violence “to brutalize, punish and control people,” the report said, citing women raped during gang attacks in neighborhoods, “in many cases after seeing their husbands killed in front of them.”

Last year, the number of people killed and injured as a result of gang violence increased significantly — with 4,451 killed and 1,668 injured, the report said.

The numbers have skyrocketed, with 1,554 killed and 826 injured as of Friday last week, it said.

As a result of the escalating gang violence, so-called “selfdefense brigades” have taken justice into their own hands, it said.

“At least 528 cases of lynching were reported in 2023 and a further 59 in 2024,” it said.

The report reiterated the need for urgent deployment of a multinational security mission to help Haiti’s police stop the violence and restore the rule of law.

It urged tighter national and international controls to stem the trafficking of weapons and ammunition to gangs and others.

O’Neill, who was appointed by the Geneva-based UN human rights chief, said that the “alarming” targeting of key institutions and individuals began in the past four or five weeks — with 18 attacks on hospitals documented, attacks on schools including one set on fire three days ago and one of Haiti’s elite academic institutions set ablaze on Wednesday.