(2023-11) Criminal Violence Extends Beyond Port-au-Prince: The Situation in Lower Artibonite (January 2022 to October 2023)

United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) • 2023 • 39 pages

Summary — Joint BINUH-OHCHR report documenting the spread of gang violence into the Lower Artibonite region between January 2022 and October 2023, mapping the perpetrators, their alliances and sponsors, the human rights abuses committed, and the resulting displacement and humanitarian impact.

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Key Findings

Gang violence long concentrated in Port-au-Prince spread into the agricultural plain of Lower Artibonite from 2022. Gangs committed killings, kidnappings, sexual violence, and destruction of homes and farmland, largely unchecked by an overwhelmed police. Over 22,000 people were displaced in the region as recorded by IOM in June 2023. The violence disrupted one of Haiti's main agricultural breadbaskets and cut access to markets, schools, and health care.

Full Description

This November 2023 joint report by BINUH and the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) documents how criminal gang violence, long concentrated in Port-au-Prince, spread into the agricultural plain of Lower Artibonite between January 2022 and October 2023. It maps the principal gangs operating in the region, their shifting alliances, and the sponsors who enable them, and details the human rights abuses committed against the civilian population, including killings, kidnappings, sexual violence, and the destruction and looting of homes and farmland. The report describes the near-absence of state protection, the overwhelming of the Haitian National Police, and the emergence of self-defence responses. It assesses the humanitarian consequences, including large-scale displacement, disruption of agricultural production in one of Haiti's main breadbaskets, and loss of access to markets, schools, and health care. It closes with recommendations to the Haitian authorities and international partners on protection, security-sector support, and accountability.

Topics

Geography

Time Coverage

2022 — 2023

Keywords

gang violence, Lower Artibonite, displacement, agriculture, human rights abuses, self-defence, Haitian National Police, IOM

Entities

BINUH, OHCHR, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Haitian National Police, Lower Artibonite, Gran Grif

Notes

Joint BINUH-OHCHR thematic report; recovered from ReliefWeb attachment; ayitistats wave B