UN chief warns gangs could overrun Haitian capital without additional support: NPR

UNITED NATIONS — Gangs in Haiti could overrun the capital, Port-au-Prince, leading to a complete collapse of government authority without additional international support for the beleaguered national police, the United Nations chief has warned.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report released Wednesday at a Security Council meeting on the deteriorating situation in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country that “time is running out.”

Further delays in providing police with additional officers for the multinational force trying to combat gang violence or additional assistance “carry the risk of a catastrophic collapse of national security institutions”, a- he declared.

“This could allow gangs to invade the entire metropolitan area, leading to a complete breakdown of state authority and making international operations, including those aimed at supporting communities in need, in the country untenable,” said António Guterres.

He told the Security Council: “We must urgently do everything in our power to prevent such an outcome.” »

Kenya is leading the multinational police force and 217 additional officers arrived over the weekend, bringing its total deployment to more than 600, below the 1,000 officers promised by the country’s president. An additional 150 Guatemalans and an advance team of eight Salvadoran soldiers also arrived, but the force remains well short of the planned strength of 2,500 officers.

The power of gangs in Haiti has increased since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

More than 5,600 people were reported killed across Haiti last year, according to the United Nations. The number of murders increased by more than 20% compared to the whole of 2023, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Maria Isabel Salvador, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, told the Security Council that gang violence has forced more than a million Haitians to flee their homes, many of them crowding into makeshift and unsanitary shelters after armed men razed their homes.

The humanitarian crisis in Haiti has reached “alarming levels,” she said, with nearly 2 million people facing emergency levels of food insecurity and 6,000 people in catastrophic conditions facing famine. .

Haitian leaders have requested a U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the multinational force, and the permanent council of the Organization of American States, the United States and dozens of other countries have supported the request. The multinational force is financed by a trust fund, which contains only $101.1 million in pledges, while a UN force would be financed by the UN peacekeeping budget.

Guterres is preparing options for the future role of the UN in Haiti.

Haitian Foreign Minister Jean-Victor Harvel Jean Baptiste told the council that a U.N. peacekeeping mission was crucial. Echoing Guterres, he said gang violence, massacres and kidnappings pose “an existential threat” to the safety and security of Haitians – and threaten “the very survival of our state”.

Guterres said he was “appalled by the brutality and scale of violence” committed by gangs, citing reports of sexual violence, including gang rape and child recruitment.

“The setbacks in the political process helped create a climate in which these atrocities became possible,” he said.

Guterres said the transition roadmap that began after Moise’s assassination “has been worryingly slow.”

“Simply put, the goal of restoring democratic institutions by February 2026 is under threat,” the UN chief said.