At least 1,167 people were killed and another 459 injured in Haiti between July and September, according to a new United Nations assessment of the country’s human rights situation. The figures cover three months of violence across the country, not a single attack.
UN human rights monitors also documented 344 victims of sexual violence perpetrated by gang members during the same quarter. The 11 November assessment describes abuses in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and in the Artibonite and South-East departments.
More than half of those killed or injured during the quarter were casualties of ground or aerial security operations against gangs, BINUH monitors reported. More than 45 per cent were killed or injured by gang members. These figures describe the circumstances of the recorded casualties; they do not establish that every death or injury during an operation was unlawful.
Violence across several areas
Gang members maintained control of neighbourhoods in the capital and carried out targeted killings. BINUH documented attacks against people who refused extortion demands or were accused of breaking gang rules. Monitors also recorded killings of people who denounced attempts by gang leaders to interfere in the electoral process.
Some gang members returned to areas including Bel Air and La Saline after security operations had driven them out earlier in the year. BINUH also documented attacks in places that had previously experienced comparatively little gang infiltration, including Saint-Michel-de-l’Attalaye in Artibonite and Marigot in the South-East.
In Kenscoff, two attacks in July and August killed at least 105 residents, including 19 children. In Cité Soleil, at least 19 people were killed in an attack in early August. The incidents are among those included in the wider quarterly assessment, rather than additional deaths to be added to its headline total.
Kidnapping and sexual violence
BINUH monitors recorded at least 137 people kidnapped for ransom across Haiti during the quarter, compared with 81 in the previous three months. Children accounted for 10 per cent of the victims in the latter period.
The 344 documented victims of sexual violence were aged between eight and 75. BINUH recorded that 77 per cent of the documented cases involved gang rape. These are recorded cases, and the figures do not necessarily capture every victim. The sexual violence count is a separate measure from the numbers killed and injured; the assessment does not establish that the groups are mutually exclusive.
Gangs continued to recruit and exploit children. In Gressier in August, at least 32 boys aged 14 to 16 who had been forcibly recruited by a gang were killed during exchanges of gunfire with security forces, according to BINUH monitors.
Scrutiny of security operations
Security forces sometimes carried out operations with support from a private military company using drones. More than 16 per cent of the people killed or injured in the operations were not associated with gangs, BINUH reported. That percentage relates to casualties of the operations, not to all of the quarter’s recorded deaths and injuries.
BINUH documented 44 cases described as extrajudicial executions or attempted executions involving members of the Haitian National Police, compared with 14 in the preceding quarter. It called for alleged violations to be investigated and said operations against gangs must comply with international human rights law. The assessment does not establish that each case has been determined by a court.
For comparison, UN monitors recorded at least 1,408 people killed and 656 injured in the April-to-June quarter. The lower totals in the latest assessment do not diminish the violence it documents, and the quarterly figures should not be treated as a forecast of what will happen next.
Progress was made towards two specialised judicial units intended to handle mass crimes, including sexual violence, and financial crimes. BINUH called for the units to become fully operational and for trials to begin. It also urged stronger protection and assistance for survivors, measures to prevent the recruitment of children and support for disarmament and reintegration.
