Nearly six thousand people killed Haiti in 2024

GENEVA, CMC – On Tuesday, Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, renewed his urgent appeal for countries to refrain from repatriating Haitians back to their homeland.

This call came as the UN Human Rights Office reported that at least 5,601 people were killed in Haiti last year amid ongoing violence and instability. Türk emphasized the severe risks faced by individuals being returned to the country, urging governments to consider the dire human rights situation in Haiti before making any repatriation decisions. The killings were as a result of gang violence, an increase of over 1,000 on the total killings for 2023, according to figures verified by the UN Human Rights Office.

It said a further 2,212 people were injured and 1,494 kidnapped. “These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected,” said Türk. In one of the most deadly and shocking incidents in 2024, at least 207 people were killed in early December in a massacre orchestrated by the leader of the powerful Wharf Jérémie gang in the Cité Soleil area of Port-au-Prince. The UN Human Rights Office said many of the victims were older people accused of causing the death of the leader’s son through alleged voodoo practices.