Port-au-Prince, 23 December 2024

Just over two weeks after the start of a wave of crimes committed by the Wharf Jérémie gang in the municipality of Port-au-Prince, the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) in Haiti and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published their investigation report today. 

Between 6 and 11 December 2024, more than 207 people (134 men and 73 women) were executed, the majority of whom were elderly individuals accused of practicing voodoo and causing the gang leader’s child disease. Other victims included people who tried to flee the area for fear of reprisals, or who were suspected of having leaked information about these crimes to local media.

The work of BINUH and OHCHR has established that the victims resided in five distinct areas throughout the Wharf Jérémie neighbourhood and were killed over a six-day period.

They were first tracked down at their homes and a place of worship, and taken to the gang’s stronghold where they were held captive and interrogated in a so-called “training centre”. They were then taken to a nearby execution site before being shot dead or killed with machetes. The gang tried to erase all evidence by burning the bodies, or by dismembering them and then throwing them into the sea.

María Isabel Salvador, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Haiti, stresses that these crimes touch the very foundation of Haitian society, targeting the most vulnerable populations.

“We cannot pretend that nothing happened. I call on the Haitian justice system to thoroughly investigate these horrific crimes and arrest and punish the perpetrators, as well as those who support them. I also call on the authorities to set up a specialized judicial unit as soon as possible to combat this type of crime.”

For a long time, neither the police nor the judicial authorities have intervened at Wharf Jérémie. The abuses committed by gang members remain largely unpunished. On 12 December, the Prime Minister nevertheless instructed the Minister of Justice and Public Security and the head of the judicial police to deploy all necessary resources to apprehend the perpetrators of these crimes.

Since 2022, the Jérémie Wharf gang has been fighting rival gangs for control of the roads leading to the capital’s main port and its container terminal. In addition, the leader of this gang would impose “taxes” on the consortium managing the port, including for the exit of containers, as well as on road transport companies moving goods from the port. It has also positioned itself as a key intermediary for national and international actors seeking to access local populations living in Wharf Jérémie.

The documented crimes at Wharf Jérémie occur in an alarming context of violence and human rights violations and abuses in Haiti, involving both criminal gangs, self-defense groups, as well as unorganized members of the population. Credible sources also indicate the involvement of specialized units of the National Police of Haiti (PNH).

Since the beginning of 2024, BINUH and OHCHR have recorded more than 5,350 people killed and more than 2,155 injured as a direct result of these acts of violence. This brings the total of deaths and injuries to over 17,000 since 2022.

As the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has emphasized, it is urgent that the Haitian authorities take robust measures to strengthen the police and other state institutions paralyzed by corruption and impunity. The international community must also implement the targeted arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed by the UN Security Council to stem gang violence in Haiti.

Contact: Mathias Gillmann, BINUH Spokesperson, gillmann@un.org