According to a United Nations report, rival gangs in the Caribbean country of Haiti are increasingly using sexual violence as a weapon. Gang members raped women, children and, more rarely, men to punish, oppress and instill fear in the population, according to a report released Friday by the United Nations Office for Haiti and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. United Nations.
“The number of cases is increasing day by day as the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Haiti worsens,” acting UN Human Rights Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif said. Even 10-year-old children and elderly women were allegedly raped for hours by various perpetrators in front of their relatives, the report said.
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The victims’ testimonies of the horrific acts made it clear that urgent action was needed, Al-Nashif said. Those responsible must be held accountable and the victims must be supported.
In July 2021, Haiti President Jovenel Moïse († 53) was assassinated at his home under still unclear circumstances. For more than a year, gangs have brutally battled for control of parts of the capital. Thousands of people are starving. The security, health and supply situation is so serious that the interim government has asked the UN for help through an armed international force. The country with about eleven million inhabitants is the poorest in the American continent. (SDA)