Gang violence has killed more than 1,500 people in Haiti so far this year, the United Nations human rights office reported on Thursday, the result of what it described as a “cataclysmic situation” in the country.
Corruption, impunity and poor governance, together with increasing levels of gang violence, have brought the Caribbean nation’s state institutions “close to collapse,” the agency said.
The U.N. human rights office reported that gang violence had left 1,554 people dead and 826 injured this year, as of March 22, A new report released by the agency described a surge in sexual violence by gang members, including rapes of women, often after having witnessed the killing of their husbands.
There is also widespread, deadly vigilantism, with community groups — some calling themselves “self-defense brigades” — attacking people suspected of petty crime or gang affiliation.
Last year, 528 people were reported killed in that way, and 59 more so far this year, the U.N. said.
Armed gangs have taken control of most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, destroying police stations and government offices, as well as looting banks and hospitals, and killing and kidnapping dozens of people.
The violence spurred the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who became stranded outside the country in early March.
“The numbers are all going very much in the wrong direction, very quickly,” he said.
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@T4riffCurlewRepublican2yrs2Y
@MeerkatBarryDemocrat2yrs2Y
The entire country is a loss. Look for blame everywhere but the Haitians themselves. In our modern construct, any tragedy is always someone else's fault.
@F4irTradeAndyVeteran2yrs2Y
France and Spain captured or purchased hundreds of thousands of Africans and shipped them to Haiti, with untold death and suffering along the way.
The folks who survived were forced for generations to work without pay, beaten, raped, starved, and killed on coffee and sugar plantations.
Billions of dollars of wealth in today's dollars were extracted directly from the labor of enslaved Haitians.
Haitians eventually managed to win freedom in a protracted revolt which decimated the island and destroyed most of the plantations which constituted the only real economy. Haiti was then paradoxically… Read more
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Every discussion of or reporting on Haiti should always include the fact that arguably the greatest factor contributing to Haiti's dire poverty is the extortion perpetrated by France. When the enslaved population of Haiti rebelled and demanded their freedom (in the1800s), they were forced to pay reparations of 150 million francs to their French enslavers or risk being annihilated. By the time payments were discontinued in 1947, Haiti had paid many times the original ransom amount due to the accumulation of interest as the island nation encountered difficulties in paying the debt. France… Read more
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