Gangs in Haiti inflict "incredible pain" on civilians, UN expert warns

Gangs in Haiti continue to terrorize communities through the “wanton, intentional infliction of incredible pain” on people who often are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, according to the Designated Human Rights Expert for Haiti, William O’Neill, who spoke to United Nations (UN) News ahead of the release of a new report published by the UN’s political office in Haiti, known by its French acronym BINUH, as reported in a press release by UN News on 6 August 2026. The report reveals that at least 613 people were killed and another 375 were injured in just two neighborhoods of the capital, Port-au-Prince, during a 4.5-month period up to 31 July. More than one-third of the victims were individuals not associated with gangs, including 111 women and 77 children. The findings underscore the scale of violence gripping the Haitian capital.

Gangs control most of Port-au-Prince and some of the surrounding areas. The report documents systematic violence targeting civilians in neighborhoods contested by rival groups. More than 176 women and girls were victims of rape committed by gang members, “often as a form of punishment against people living in areas controlled by rival gangs,” the report said. More than 18,000 people were also forced to flee their homes. UN human rights monitors have highlighted a number of individual cases in the report.

Murders and executions

Among the cases documented, two 17-year-old boys were shot dead by a gang leader after being accused of passing information to a rival gang. A 71-year-old man was shot dead by the leader of a gang after approaching him to ask for food. A woman stopped by gang members was paralyzed with fear, accused of being an informant, and executed on the spot. In another case, 17 boys aged 15 to 17 were executed together by gang members who suspected them of working for a rival gang, with some taken to and shot at a trash site. Shortly after the World Cup football match between Haiti and Scotland on June 13, a crowd of 300 people including a musical group was attacked by a gang, leaving at least 61 people killed and another 20 injured, including at least seven children, the youngest barely seven years old.

Sexual violence against women

The report also details horrific accounts of sexual violence. Five masked men struck a mother of three at her home with the butts of their guns before gang-raping her in front of her children. A woman was raped by a group of armed men after they had set fire to her home, killing her husband and her young daughter, who was barely two years old, with the assault taking place in front of her 10-year-old son. Other survivors reported being intercepted in the street while returning home and then taken to wooded areas, where they were raped. These testimonies illustrate the brutality endured by civilians in gang-controlled zones.

The BINUH report brings renewed attention to the human rights emergency unfolding in Haiti’s capital. It documents killings, sexual violence, and mass displacement occurring within a concentrated timeframe and geographic area. The findings from O’Neill and BINUH highlight the scale and severity of gang violence affecting civilians who are not associated with any armed group. Women, children, and elderly individuals feature prominently among the victims documented. The report stands as a record of the violence inflicted on Haitian communities during the reporting period.