'There's no police or state': Haitians helpless as violence and brutality soars

Related: "Living a Nightmare": Haiti Needs an Urgent Rights-Based Response to Escalating Crisis (Human Rights Watch)

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Source: The Guardian

‘There’s no police or state’: Haitians helpless as violence and brutality soars

Human Rights Watch says country unable to protect citizens from killing and rape by armed gangs, and floats overseas peacekeepers

Luke Taylor
Mon 14 Aug 2023 18.43 BST
Last modified on Mon 14 Aug 2023 19.12 BST

Human rights abuses in Haiti are soaring while the Haitian state is almost nonexistent and unable to protect its people from the brutality of armed gangs, Human Rights Watch has warned in a new report.

Rival criminal factions now have such a tight grip over the country that international security forces could be necessary to restore order, the rights groups said.

HRW investigators documented 67 recent killings by armed gangs in its report, “Living a Nightmare” including the murders of 11 children and 12 women. It also verified more than 20 cases of rape – many of them committed by multiple perpetrators to sow terror among the population.

“Urgent action is needed to address the extreme levels of violence and the palpable fear, hunger, and sense of abandonment that so many Haitians experience today,” said Nathalye Cotrino, crisis and conflict researcher at HRW.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/14/haiti-violence-abuse-killing-human-rights-watch

Non-walled link: https://archive.li/9YC1A