UN Security Council appeals for support for Haiti's police facing gangs

(Patria) - The United Nations Security Council has called on the international community to support Haiti's police, but has refrained from any concrete steps to create the international intervention force that this crisis-hit country has been calling for, AFP reports.

Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, has experienced a worsening humanitarian, political and security crisis, with gangs controlling much of the capital and terrorizing the population through kidnappings, rapes and murders.

The unanimously adopted UN Security Council resolution encourages countries "to provide security support to the Haitian National Police," including "the deployment of specialized forces."

The 15 member states requested Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit a report within 30 days on "the full range of support options" to improve security, particularly in combating arms trafficking, providing police training and strengthening "multinational forces that are not UN members, or a possible peace operation."

For months, Guterres and Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry have been calling for international forces to help curb the rising violence, but there has been little action as no country has offered to lead the operation.

Violence has meanwhile continued to "escalate and spread," Guterres said in a report on Friday, citing murders, kidnappings, rapes of women and girls, looting and the displacement of thousands of people. Murders rose by 67.5 percent between January and June compared to the second half of 2022, the document says, noting that some victims were even beheaded.

Without a sufficient security apparatus to fight the rampaging gangs, Haitians have begun taking matters into their own hands, including through the newly formed self-defense movement "Bwa Kale," which has spread across the country.

From the end of April to the end of June, at least 224 suspected gang members were killed by vigilante groups, sometimes being stoned, mutilated or "burned alive in the middle of the street while police stood by."