Haiti: Over 16,000 Deaths in Violence Since 2022, According to UN

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned on Thursday, October 2, before the Human Rights Council in Geneva about the scale of violence in Haiti, where over 16,000 people have been killed since 2022 and half the population requires humanitarian aid. A chilling toll. Since 2022, over 16,000 people have been killed in armed violence in Haiti, according to data released by the UN on Thursday, October 2. During his address in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, painted an alarming picture of the humanitarian and security situation in the country. “Half of the population, or 6 million people, including 3.3 million children, are in need of humanitarian aid,” he stated. Haiti, considered the poorest nation in the Americas, is suffocated by the growing grip of gangs, accused of murders, rapes, and kidnappings. The UN had already reported in June that a record 1.3 million people had been displaced internally due to the violence. In the first half of 2025 alone, over 3,000 people have died in these clashes. Faced with this spiral, the international community established the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in 2023, led by Kenya, to support an overwhelmed Haitian National Police. However, the mission is struggling to produce concrete results: its personnel numbers are capped at around a thousand agents out of the 2,500 planned, and its financial and material resources remain limited. Volker Türk warned against the escalation of violence, involving gangs, security forces, and the civilian population alike. He specifically denounced the government's increasing use of explosive drones in anti-gang operations in Port-au-Prince. According to him, these strikes had caused the deaths of at least 559 people, including 11 children, by mid-September, and “most are likely illegal.” The High Commissioner also noted that 174 suspected gang members had been summarily executed this year by specialized police units. In addition, over 500 extrajudicial executions have been perpetrated by self-defense groups and spontaneously formed crowds, often with the alleged support of police officers. Faced with this cycle of reprisals and violence, the UN urges Haitian authorities and their international partners to place respect for human rights at the center of any strategy for restoring security. The editorial team