In Haiti, gangs also rule through sexual violence, warns the UN

Haiti in chaos. Plagued by a nascent cholera epidemic and serious food shortages, the country must also cope with insecurity. A UN report is alarmed as well as the gangs, which hold the majority of the capital, Port-au-Prince, use rape and sexual violence to “spread fear” and extend their control.

Faced with “widespread impunity”, criminal gangs rely on “rape, including gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence” to “expand their areas of influence”, the report notes. “Alarmingly, the number of cases is increasing day by day,” said Nada Al-Nashif, the acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement.

Children “barely 10 years old and elderly women” are to be counted among the victims of gang rapes, some of whom “were mutilated and executed after being raped”, details the joint report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN office in Haiti.

60% of the capital in the hands of gangs

Seeking to “strengthen their position of power”, the gangs commit kidnappings of women and girls, then victims of rape or threats of rape, against demand for ransom to the family. The report also points to the case of women “encouraged” to have “non-consensual relations with gang members in exchange for cash benefits, including water and food.

For the first time in Haiti, some 19,000 people have fallen into the most acute food emergency, having to settle for a single meal a day made of poor quality food, the World Food Program warned on Friday. About 4.7 million people, almost half of the country’s population, are experiencing levels of acute food insecurity.

Criminal gangs control up to 60% of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to a US Congress report cited by the UN, blocking major traffic routes and the country’s main oil terminal. The shortage of hydrocarbons thus induced has led the country’s hospitals to halve their emergency care activity, also notes the UN. And, in the face of overwhelmed authorities, “impunity remains the norm”, regrets the OHCHR report.