A relative cries during the funeral of Jean Louis Jeune Gracien, who was killed during an attack by armed gangs, in Pont-Sonde, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — More than 1,740 people were reported killed or injured in Haiti from July to September, a nearly 30% increase over the previous trimester, according to the latest numbers released Wednesday by U.N. officials.

The surge in violence comes as gangs seize control of 85% of the capital of Port-au-Prince — up from 80% — while a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police to quell gang violence struggles with a lack of funding and personnel, prompting calls for a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

“In the absence of state representatives, gangs increasingly claim roles typically assigned to the police and the judiciary while imposing their own rules,” warned the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH.

The 1,223 killings reported in the third trimester are largely blamed on gang violence, although law enforcement officials carried out at least 106 extrajudicial killings, with victims including six children as young as 10 years old who were accused of passing information to gang members, BINUH said.

Of the 106 extrajudicial killings, 96 were carried out by police officers and 10 others by Jean Ernest Muscadin, public prosecutor for the southern coastal city of Miragoâne. Overall, Muscadin is accused of killing at least 36 people since 2022 who were suspected of being gang members or of committing “common crimes,” BINUH said.

A spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police did not respond to requests for comment, while Muscadin declined comment and hung up when reached by phone.

Extreme brutality

Gangs now have an estimated 5,500 members after recruiting mainly children who work as scouts, carry weapons and ammunition and even participate in combat, according to a U.N. Security Council report released Monday. It noted that children may represent up to 50% of all gang members.

“The dire situation in Haiti makes children more vulnerable to recruitment by gangs,” the report stated. “A lack of access to education, employment and basic necessities creates a situation where joining gangs is seen as the only viable means of survival.”

Among those killed this trimester are at least 669 people during police operations against gangs, with three-fourths of the victims suspected gang members and one-fourth of them civilians, the BINUH report stated.

“Information gathered … points to a possible disproportionate use of lethal force and a lack of precautionary measures to protect the population during police operations,” BINUH said.

The number of people killed or injured from July to September increased by 27% compared with the second trimester, although there was a 32% drop compared with the first trimester.

The majority of killings and injuries – 234 – occurred in La Saline slum of Port-au-Prince, most of them inside residents’ makeshift homes as gangs vie for control of Haiti’s main port and its container terminal, according to the report.

Gangs also recently occupied the communities of Carrefour and Gressier in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, using “extreme brutality to bring residents under their control,” BINUH said.

In one case, a plainclothes policeman was stopped by gang members in mid-August: “He was mutilated, then forced to eat parts of his body, before being burned alive.”

At least 122 killings were blamed on self-defense groups that formed last year and have targeted suspected gang members or people accused of crimes including stealing animals or cell phones.

“Victims were mutilated with machetes, stoned, decapitated, burned alive or buried alive,” the report said. “Children were not spared.”

Overall, at least 59 children were killed or injured in the third trimester.

The U.N. noted that the number of self-defense groups doubled to around 60 from January to July.

‘I think it's the end of my life'

Most of the violence remains centered in the capital of Port-au-Prince and the central region of Artibonite, where dozens of people were killed in a massacre earlier this month.

In one bright spot, the number of kidnappings plummeted to 170 during the third trimester compared with earlier this year, with more than 60% of cases occurring in Artibonite, according to the report.

In the second trimester, at least 428 people were kidnapped.

Sexual violence remains pervasive, with at least 55 victims reporting gang rape, including girls and women ages 10 to 70, according to the report, which noted that such cases are largely under-reported.

Women and girls are attacked inside their homes or while walking on streets or using public transportation, with some sexually exploited for months by gang members, BINUH said.

Gang violence has left more than 700,000 people homeless in recent years, and it has surged this month, with gunmen trying to take over Solino, one of the last communities in Port-au-Prince that is not under their control.

“There’s a complete destruction of people’s lives,” said Jean Renel Volma, a 55-year-old unemployed security guard who recently fled Solino with his wife and two children after living there for more than two decades.

“It was dark, there was tremendous shooting, everybody was yelling. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen in Solino,” he said as he recalled how they were only able to flee with the clothes they had on.

Originally from the southern coastal town of Les Cayes, Volma said he can't take refuge there because gangs control the main roads leading out of Port-au-Prince: “I don’t know what I’m going to do. There is no exit."

Volma is one of hundreds of people who crowded into a church in nearby Nazon after being left homeless as gunfire echoed nearby on Wednesday. The U.N. report noted that gangs are targeting Solino and Delmas 24 to gain access to middle-class neighborhoods, including Nazon.

“The aim is to bring in more income from kidnappings and extortion of businesses in this wealthy area,” it stated.

Among those temporarily living at the church is Alicia Joseph, a 60-year-old mother of three children. While her children live with a friend who took them in, there was no space for her.

“I think it’s the end of my life. I lost everything,” she said.

Her losses include her 85-year-old mother, who wasn't able to flee with the rest of the family when the gang attacked.

“I thought they would spare her life,” Joseph said, adding that her mother died inside their home when gangs set it on fire.

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico

News from © The Associated Press, 2024