Haiti gangs increase use of sexual violence, human rights group says

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) — Fighting between criminal groups in Haiti will decline in 2024, while attacks on civilians, including “horrendous sexual abuse,” will increase, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). It increased. .

“Criminal groups often use sexual violence to instill fear in rival areas,” the New York-based group says.

According to HRW researcher Nathalye Cotrino, “The rule of law is so violated in Haiti that members of criminal organizations rape girls or women without fear of consequences.”

HRW said it had conducted numerous face-to-face and remote interviews with authorities, rights and humanitarian workers, as well as victims of sexual abuse in the impoverished Caribbean country.

It reported that from January to October this year, “nearly 4,000 girls and women were subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape.”

The report also cited a United Nations study showing that cases involving children increased by 1000 percent by 2023.

“The bandits don’t care about their age,” one aid worker said. “They rape because they have the power. Sometimes they do this for days or weeks,” impregnating some survivors in a country that bans abortion, or getting injured before they can access care.

A 25-year-old mother said she was gang-raped by four men while she was looking for water for her children.

“They didn’t use to do that, but now they do whatever they want,” he said.

“Rape has become so normalized that most of the women who come to us say, ‘They raped me, but at least they didn’t kill me,'” one humanitarian aid worker said.

Increasing violence has brought the healthcare system to the brink of collapse.

Médecins Sans Frontières, known by its French acronym MSF and which has long provided free emergency care in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, suspended its services there following attacks on its staff, as well as death and rape threats against MSF staff. Haitian National Police”.

The latest attacks follow allegations that MSF provides medical support to criminal groups. The organization says it “provides care to all persons based solely on medical need.”

HRW called on the international community to urgently increase funding to support a response that improves security while respecting human rights.

Among other steps, it calls on the Government to decriminalize abortion; providing adequate support to victims of abuse; and discipline police officers who threaten MSF.