Volker Turk has called for an international security assistance mission to be urgently deployed to the Caribbean country, saying the death toll from gang violence, which has also left 692 people injured, is staggering.
“The reality is that under the current circumstances there is no real alternative to protect lives,” he said in a statement calling for decisive action to prevent Haiti from plunging further into chaos.
“We’re just running out of time,” he said.
His comments came as the UN Security Council prepared to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday on the situation in Haiti, where marauding gangs are threatening a bloody civil war unless interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns.
Last Thursday, armed groups that control large swaths of the country announced a coordinated effort to oust Mr. Henry, and since then attacks have been launched once morest Port-au-Prince airport, prisons, police stations and other strategic facilities.
Powerful gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed “Barbecue”, warned on Tuesday that the current chaos would turn into civil war and genocide if the prime minister did not resign.
The United States has urged the prime minister of violence-torn Haiti to speed up political change and hold elections.
“We urge him to accelerate the transition to an empowered and inclusive governance structure that will urgently prepare the country for a multinational security assistance mission that will address the security situation and enable free and fair elections,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Mr Miller said the US and the CARICOM bloc wanted Mr Henry to “make concessions for the benefit of the Haitian people”.
But he added: “We are not calling for him to resign and we are not pressuring him to resign.”
Resignation is the main demand of the influential leader of the gang, Mr. Cherizier.
Starting in 2021, when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated, Henry was due to step down in February, but instead struck a power-sharing deal with the opposition until new elections are held.
Turk pointed to last weekend’s mass prison break, which Haitian officials described as a deadly threat to national security.
According to him, it is currently known that more than 4.5 thousand people fled. prisoners, including members of famous gangs.
A gang attack on a prison in the Haitian capital killed a dozen people and caused several thousand inmates to escape, an AFP journalist and a non-governmental organization reported on Sunday.
Following the attack, the Haitian government declared a state of emergency and a curfew.
“This situation is more than unbearable for the people of Haiti,” V. Turk said.
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2024-04-17 06:43:37
