The United Nations says gangs in Haiti continue to terrorize many communities, inflicting “wanton, intentional infliction of incredible pain” on thousands of people.
Designated Human Rights Expert for Haiti, William O’Neill, spoke on the release of a new report, which records gang atrocities in Port-au-Prince and nearby locations.
Over 613 people were killed and another 375 wounded in just two neighborhoods of the Caribbean nation’s capital in less than five months up to July 31.
More than one-third of the victims, according to the UN, were individuals not associated with gangs, including 111 women and 77 children.
The report said over 176 women and girls were raped by gang members, “often as a form of punishment against people living in areas controlled by rival gangs.”
Over 18,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, as documented by UN human rights monitors in the report published by the UN’s political office in Haiti (BINUH).
In specific cases highlighted, a woman was raped by armed men who set her home on fire, killed her husband and her young daughter, barely two years old.
Another woman—stopped by gang members who questioned her presence there—was accused of being an informant for rivals and executed on the spot.
Two teenagers were shot dead by a gang leader for “passing information to a rival gang,” while a 71-year-old man was fatally shot as he walked around seeking food.
Seventeen boys—aged 15 to 17—were executed together by gang members on suspicion of working for an adversary. Some were taken to and shot at a trash site.
After a World Cup football match between Haiti and Scotland on June 13, about 300 people walked to a neighborhood where a gang attacked them.
At least 61 people were killed and another 20 injured. The victims included at least seven children, the youngest of whom was barely seven years old.