A human rights group urged the international community on Monday to intervene quickly to end spiraling violence by gangs in Haiti, as it detailed the brutal rapes and killings committed in the troubled nation's capital.
The call by Human Rights Watch comes as Haiti awaits a response from the UN Security Council to its request in October for the immediate deployment of an international armed force to fight the surge in violence.
“The longer that we wait and don’t have this response, we’re going to see more Haitians being killed, raped, and kidnapped, and more people suffering without enough to eat,” said Ida Sawyer, the group’s crisis and conflict director, who visited Haiti to compile a report on the violence.
Doctors Without Borders said that between January and May of this year, it helped more than 1,000 victims of sexual violence, nearly twice the number in the same period last year.
Kidnappings and killings also have spiked.
More than 2,000 people were killed from January to June, a nearly 125 percent increase from the same period last year. More than 1,000 kidnappings were reported during those months, according to the UN Integrated Office in Haiti.
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