UNODC Security Council Periodic Report, October 2025

Transmitted by the Secretary-General on 13 October 2025 and issued as S/2025/642 on 14 October, this is the ninth quarterly report of UNODC under paragraph 9 of resolution 2692 (2023), as renewed by paragraph 19 of resolution 2743 (2024) and by resolution 2785 (2025). It covers developments since the previous report of 27 June 2025. On the security context it records at least 3,137 violent deaths and 336 kidnappings for ransom in the first half of 2025, and UN reporting that at least 1,500 people were killed between April and June 2025 with roughly 1.3 million internally displaced.

Its central observation concerns a change in method rather than only in scale: where criminal groups previously relied on sporadic firefights and kidnapping for ransom, they now mount systematic guerrilla-style ambushes against police and deliberately destructive attacks intended to instil fear, the July 2025 arson of the historic Grand Hôtel Oloffson standing as the emblematic case of targeting a cultural landmark for symbolic effect. A section on regional spillover records a marked rise between June and August 2025 in irregular migration and criminal incidents involving Haitian nationals reported by authorities in The Bahamas.

The final substantive section covers illicit financial flows and sanctions enforcement, including gang attacks on the main port in the Port-au-Prince area and the resulting loss of government revenue and disruption of commodity supply.