Gangs kill over 180 in Port-au-Prince, UN says

Gang members in Haiti’s capital killed 184 people—including 127 elderly men and women—over the weekend, the United Nations said on Monday. The killings took place in the Wharf Jérémie neighborhood in the Cité Soleil slum of Port-au-Prince, the spokesperson for the UN’s secretary-general for Haiti said.

Did the UN say anything else about the incident? The secretary-general called for authorities in Haiti to investigate the incident and bring the gang members responsible to justice. But Haitian police often lack the resources necessary to effectively respond to crimes that occur inside the country, the U.S. State Department said earlier this year.

Human Rights Watch on Monday echoed that assessment. The Haitian National Police suffer from staffing and equipment shortages, the group said. Additionally, many of the agency’s officers also have links to criminal organizations and human rights abuses, the group claimed. The UN needs to send a peacekeeping mission to Haiti to bring stability and security, Human Rights Watch said.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report in The Sift about Haitian police reportedly attacking an ambulance and killing its patients last month.