The United Nations has raised serious concerns about Haiti’s human rights emergency, reporting more than 4,800 deaths linked to gang violence since October 2024, along with widespread sexual violence, kidnappings, and mass displacement.

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Speaking to reporters on Friday, U.N. Secretary-General spokesperson Farhan Haq described the situation in Haiti as “extremely worrying.” Between April and June alone, at least 1,520 people were killed and 609 injured due to armed violence. In the same period, the U.N. documented 185 kidnappings and 628 cases of sexual violence.

The data, compiled by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), prompted a renewed call for global intervention. “OCHA urges immediate support to sustain and expand our overall response to protect the most vulnerable,” Haq stated.

Since late 2024, more than 4,800 people across Haiti have lost their lives in gang-related violence, according to U.N. figures. Thousands more have been injured, abducted, raped, or trafficked. The violence has also displaced over 1.3 million people in recent years, worsening an already fragile humanitarian landscape.

The crisis has intensified in the absence of functioning democratic institutions. Haiti has not held general elections in nearly a decade, and the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse left a leadership vacuum that gangs have increasingly filled. Armed groups now exert control over large swaths of territory, with little to no state presence.

With no elected leadership and no international security force yet deployed, the U.N. warns that the crisis may continue to spiral unless the international community takes urgent, coordinated action to protect Haitian civilians.

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