Haitian Capital ‘Paralysed And Isolated' By Gang Violence, Security Council Hears
Since January, the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), recorded over 4,000 individuals deliberately killed – a 24 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
' The capital city was for all intents and purposes paralysed by gangs and isolated due to the ongoing suspension of international commercial flights into the international airport,' Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for the Americas at the department of political affairs (DPPA), told ambassadors in the Security Council on Wednesday.
Having visited the country recently, he warned that, gangs have only 'strengthened their foothold', which now affects all communes of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and beyond, 'pushing the situation closer to the brink.'
He called on the international community to act decisively and urgently or the 'total collapse of state presence in the capital could become a very real scenario'.
Gang control expands
Ghada Fathi Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), echoed that warning.
'As gang control expands, the state's capacity to govern is rapidly shrinking, with social, economic and security implications,' she told ambassadors, briefing remotely from Vienna.
'This erosion of state legitimacy has cascading effects,' she said, with legal commerce becoming paralysed as gangs control major trade routes, such conditions worsening 'already dire levels of food insecurity and humanitarian need,' she added.
Rise of 'vigilante' groups
Amidst increasing public frustration with the limited protection capacity of the state, 'vigilante' or self-defence groups are now gaining in popular appeal.
Although some are motivated by the urgent need to protect their communities, many operate outside existing legal frameworks, in some cases, engaging in extrajudicial actions and colluding with gangs.
The rise of these actors is pushing demand for guns and military-grade weapons, 'fuelling illicit arms markets and raising the risk of licit weapons being diverted to criminal elements,' Ms. Waly said.
Human trafficking
Meanwhile, the broader deterioration of the security and economic situation in the capital and the rest of the country continues to fuel a sharper escalation in human rights violations.
Despite persistent under-reporting of sexual violence due to fear of reprisals, social stigma and lack of trust in institutions, BINUH reported an increase in sexual violence committed by gangs in the past three months.
In May, Haitian police raided a medical facility in Pétion-Ville suspected of being involved in illicit organ trade, as allegations of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal are now arising.
As the situation in Haiti remains desperate, 'there is not a moment to lose,' Mr. Jenča urged.
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'But people in government have power to do seriously damaging things. That is the issue now. It's in government and they are acting on these ideas.' A person is seen through the window inside the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn, Maryland, on May 20. Photo / Wesley Lapointe, the Washington Post Trump – who has told tens of thousands of falsehoods during his political career – has long been attracted to outlandish stories, especially if they bolster his worldview. During the presidential campaign, he claimed without evidence that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats. After taking office, he said the Biden Administration had been planning to provide US$50 million in condoms to Hamas. Both assertions quickly fell apart under scrutiny. Now Trump and his aides can deploy the vast resources of the US Government in support of such false claims. 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The US Doge Service – the cost-cutting effort then led by billionaire Elon Musk – spent 11 weeks on a 'major clean-up' of the Social Security database, announcing on May 23 that roughly 12.3 million individuals listed as older than 120 had now been correctly listed as dead. Social Security officials had previously declined to undertake such a clean-up, saying it would divert important resources without a clear benefit. During those 11 weeks, parts of the agency ground to a halt, according to an employee who worked with the Doge team. Senior employees devoted full days to the issue. Staffers were assigned to pull data, answer Doge's questions and ultimately move millions of long-dead people to a different database. It was painstaking work, given the risk of accidentally labelling someone deceased, which would have cut off their benefits. 'For at least a month or two, that was multiple people's only job,' the employee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. 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South Africa has struggled with violence against both black and white people, but there is no evidence of a genocide, diplomats say, let alone one enabled by the Government. Trump, with cameras rolling, showed Ramaphosa a video of what he said were more than 1000 graves of murdered farmers, although it turned out the mounds were part of a protest, not actual graves. Afrikaners arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on May 12. Photo / Craig Hudson, for the Washington Post Based on such claims, the Administration granted refugee status to white Afrikaners from South Africa – at a time it was rejecting other would-be refugees. The Administration has now developed a plan to resettle 1000 Afrikaners in the US before the end of September; officials did not respond to a request about the status of the plan. Autopen Earlier this year, Trump began claiming that Biden's staff had repeatedly made use of an autopen – a machine that uses real ink to duplicate a human signature – to improperly approve presidential actions and cover up his purported mental decline. Critics from both parties have said that Biden was clearly ageing at the end of his term and should not have sought re-election. But there have been no credible assertions that he suffered from actual cognitive decline or was unable to make decisions. Trump on June 4 ordered an investigation, to be headed by the White House counsel and the attorney-general, on Biden's use of an autopen, and more broadly into whether his ostensible infirmity was covered up. 'In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden's aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline,' Trump said in an executive order. Autopens have been regularly used by presidents at least since George W. Bush, and Biden responded to Trump's move with a statement saying: 'Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false.' The Justice Department did not respond to an inquiry about the status of the investigation. Vaccines HHS under Kennedy has been especially hospitable to debunked or unproven claims. Kennedy, who has a long history of disparaging vaccination, said in the northern spring that he is looking into whether children develop autism after they receive the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, a link that has been thoroughly debunked. More than a dozen studies in peer-reviewed top journals in recent decades have rejected such a link. Kennedy has said HHS has a 'massive testing and research effort' under way involving 'hundreds of scientists from around the world' to look into the causes of autism by September, raising alarm among researchers who suspect the effort is designed to blame vaccines. Uscinski, the University of Miami conspiracy theory expert, said the risk of powerful individuals embracing falsehoods ultimately goes beyond a debatable use of resources. 'When people who have power act on conspiracy theories, especially if they are in government, they can do so in a way that can seriously harm others,' Uscinski said. 'When you start chasing phantoms, you will end up chasing real people if you can't find the phantoms.' - Hannah Natanson, Lena H. Sun and Maeve Reston contributed to this report.
