FILE PHOTO: A man carries an elderly man as they flee their neighbourhood Carrefour Feuilles after gangs took over, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti August 15, 2023. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol/File Photo
(Reuters) -The United Nations on Friday estimated that more than 350 people have been killed in Haiti by civilian vigilante groups since April, amid escalating gang violence that has in recent days has forced thousands to flee in parts of the capital.
Since April 24, when civilians lynched more than a dozen suspected criminals, birthing the "Bwa Kale" vigilante movement, some 310 alleged gang members, 46 civilians and a police officer have been killed, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
The report comes after fighting intensified late last week around the capital's heavily populated Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood, where attacks from the Grand Ravine gang prompted around 5,000 people to flee their homes.
Haiti's under-gunned police have struggled to battle the gangs, which now control large parts of the capital.
"We used to see clashes between gangs, now it's gangs against the population," said Serge Dalexis, the head of the International Rescue Committee's Haiti office.
Most of the IRC's partners working around Port-au-Prince have had to suspend mobile operations amid the recent escalation, which Dalexis said had concentrated in five hotspots around the capital.
UNDER-FUNDED RESPONSE
"It's very chaotic," said Dalexis, saying many people fled their homes without key medication and only the clothes on their backs.
Late on Thursday around 600 people sought shelter at a partner group in the lower part of Carrefour Feuilles, he said, adding they were now helping distribute food rations and hygiene kits and moving people to displaced people camps.
At the camps, the IRC is working to provide healthcare and services to victims of gender violence which has become daily abuse in areas under gang control.
The U.N. estimates that since the start of 2023, at least 2,439 people have been killed and some 200,000 people internally displaced amid severe food shortages, kidnappings and widespread sexual violence.
Haiti's unelected government requested security assistance last October, and countries are now discussing sending a U.N.-backed Kenya-led force to bolster police.
Shamdasani reiterated U.N. calls for urgent security action in strict compliance with human rights standards, while Dalexis called for guarantees of sufficient humanitarian funding.
Chronically underfunded campaigns have forced agencies including the World Food Program to slash aid, and many NGOs have shuttered operations amid dwindling budgets and increasing risk to staff and residents attempting to reach their services.
(Reporting by Isabel Woodford and Sarah Morland; Editing by Mark Potter and Sandra Maler)
