At least 3,661 people have been killed in Haiti since January due to gang violence, "maintaining the high levels of violence seen in 2023," the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report issued on Friday.
Tackling insecurity in the Caribbean country must be the utmost priority, the report said, urging the authorities and the international community to do more to protect people and prevent further suffering.
"No more lives should be lost to this senseless criminality," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
Abuse, rape and intimidation
Haiti has been plagued by violence and insecurity at the hands of armed gangs, amid ongoing political, socioeconomic and humanitarian challenges.
The situation escalated in March, when gangs mounted coordinated attacks against key government sites, including several police stations and two of the main prisons in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The report, which covers the first six months of the year, details extremely serious patterns of human rights violations and abuses taking place across the capital and in the Artibonite Department, the country's largest agricultural region.
Gang violence has also spread to the southern part of West Department, which until recently had been largely unaffected.
The number of victims of sexual violence, including rape, also increased in the first half of the year. The report noted that "gangs have continued to use sexual violence to punish, spread fear and subjugate populations".
Children recruited, farmers extorted
Meanwhile, at least 860 people were killed and 393 injured during police operations and patrols across the capital, including at least 36 children, in what could constitute use of unnecessary and disproportionate force. Gangs have also recruited large numbers of children into their ranks.
The increasing violence in Artibonite Department has further imperilled food production, at a time when roughly 1.6 million Haitians face emergency-level food security.
The report said the gangs "have extorted farmers cultivating their lands and have often descended on fields, armed with guns and machetes, to steal their crops and livestock."
The attacks "have forced farmers to abandon more than 3,000 hectares of land and move to less fertile but safer areas, which has contributed to the food crisis."
Listen to our interview with William O'Neill, the UN's designated expert on human rights issues in Haiti, who recently completed a 12-day mission to the country.
