UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations Security Council was told on Wednesday that since January, the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) has recorded over 4,000 individuals deliberately killed in Haiti.
Gangs control the majority of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. (UNOCHA/Giles Clarke)This is a 24 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
“The capital city was for all intents and purposes paralyzed by gangs and isolated due to the ongoing suspension of international commercial flights into the international airport,” Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for the Americas at the department of political affairs (DPPA), told the Security Council.
He said having visited the country recently, he is warning that gangs have only “strengthened their foothold”, which now affects all communes of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and beyond, “pushing the situation closer to the brink.”
He called on the international community to act decisively and urgently or the “total collapse of state presence in the capital could become a very real scenario”.
On Tuesday, the President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Bob Rae, who is also the Permanent Representative of Canada, urged the Security Council to quickly heed Haiti’s request for robust security assistance. A UN stabilization mission should be seriously considered, he writes.
In the short term, the ECOSOC President said, a significant UN support package to the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission is critical. He also urged the Security Council to ensure an active UN presence on the ground, given the severity of the situation in Haiti.
On Wednesday, Ghada Fathi Waly, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also echoed that warning.
“As gang control expands, the state’s capacity to govern is rapidly shrinking, with social, economic and security implications,” she said briefing the Security Council members remotely from Vienna.
“This erosion of state legitimacy has cascading effects,” she said, with legal commerce becoming paralyzed as gangs control major trade routes, such conditions worsening “already dire levels of food insecurity and humanitarian need,” she added.
The Security Council heard amidst increasing public frustration with the limited protection capacity of the state, “vigilante” or self-defense groups are now gaining in popular appeal.
They were told that although some are motivated by the urgent need to protect their communities, many operate outside existing legal frameworks, in some cases, engaging in extrajudicial actions and colluding with gangs.
Waly said the rise of these actors is pushing demand for guns and military-grade weapons, “fueling illicit arms markets and raising the risk of licit weapons being diverted to criminal elements”.
Meanwhile, the broader deterioration of the security and economic situation in the capital and the rest of the country continues to fuel a sharper escalation in human rights violations.
Despite persistent under-reporting of sexual violence due to fear of reprisals, social stigma and lack of trust in institutions, BINUH reported an increase in sexual violence committed by gangs in the past three months.
In May, Haitian police raided a medical facility in Pétion-Ville suspected of being involved in illicit organ trade, as allegations of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal are now arising.
As the situation in Haiti remains desperate, “there is not a moment to lose,”Jenča urged.
UN officials say that following Jenča’s presentation, the Council will discuss in closed consultations, the recent developments in the country and on the Secretary-General’s latest report on BINUH.
In his report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, challenged the Trump administration’s recent assessment that the situation in Haiti had improved sufficiently to allow the revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and the return of its citizens to their country.
He said Haiti “continues to face considerable challenges, notably due to the deteriorating security situation and the growing presence of gangs.
“In continuing their territorial expansion, armed gangs have seized strategic points in the West, Center, and Artibonite regions, sowing violence and committing serious human rights violations against the population,” he said, noting that all access routes to the capital, Port-au-Prince, are now under gang control.
Despite this assessment, a study conducted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services concluded that the situation in Haiti had improved sufficiently to allow Haitians to “return home safely.”
But other UN reports have noted a 500 per cent increase in violence against children in the country over the past year, making it one of the most dangerous places in the world. Specifically, the UN report on children in armed conflict indicates that the country is now as dangerous for children as Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Nigeria.
The Haitian National Police (HNP) and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) have struggled to make significant headway against the gangs.
But the UN said the MSS, whose mission to Haiti ends on October 2, continues to face funding uncertainty and a lack of adequate equipment. Deployment levels are far short of the 2,500 officers envisaged in its Concept of Operations, with only around 1,000 personnel
