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Хаос на Гаити: вооруженные банды контролируют более половины столицы
6 декабря 2022
Правозащитные группы на Гаити утверждают, что хорошо вооруженные банды контролируют более половины столицы Порт-о-Пренс и прилегающих районов.
Правозащитники сообщили Би-би-си, что за последние месяцы сотни людей были убиты в результате насилия, связанного с бандами, а еще тысячи были вынуждены бежать. Организации по оказанию помощи говорят, что дороги, ведущие в Порт-о-Пренс и из него, находятся под контролем банд.
Поскольку районы вокруг парламента также находятся под контролем банд, премьер-министр Гаити Ариэль Генри обратился за международной помощью.
Город в осаде
По данным гаитянских правозащитных групп, вооруженные группировки контролируют и терроризируют не менее 60% столицы и ее окрестностей. Они фактически держат город в осаде, контролируя ведущие в него дороги. По данным ООН, с января по июнь этого года жертвами банд стали более тысячи человек.
По сути, государственный аппарат на Гаити не функционирует. Здесь сейчас нет главы государства (его убили, а нового пока нет), не функционирует парламент (банды контролируют территорию вокруг него), а поддерживаемый США премьер-министр Ариэль Генри не был формально избран на пост и не пользуется популярностью.
Почти половина населения - 4,7 млн гаитян - недоедает. По данным ООН, в столице голодают около 20 тыс. человек. Это первый такой случай на американском континенте. На острове вновь появилась холера. Но действия вооруженных банд - это худшее из зол, утверждают правозащитники.
Похищения людей
Похищение людей - это растущая индустрия. По данным ООН, с января по октябрь этого года было зарегистрировано 1107 случаев похищений. Для некоторых банд это основной источник дохода. Выкуп может составлять от 200 до миллиона долларов. Если выкуп заплачен, большинство жертв возвращаются домой живыми, но отнюдь не невредимыми.
"Мужчин избивают, женщины и девочки подвергаются групповому изнасилованию, - говорит Гедеон Жан из гаитянского Центра анализа и исследований в области прав человека. - Это подстегивает родственников побыстрее найти деньги для выкупа. Иногда похитители звонят родственникам, чтобы те по телефону послушали, как происходит изнасилование".
Последний действующий президент Гаити Жовенель Моиз был убит вооруженными людьми в июле 2021 года. Полиция обвинила в этом колумбийских наемников, около 20 из которых впоследствии были арестованы.
Но более года спустя никто не предстал перед судом - ни за убийство, ни за его заказ и организацию. Правозащитники утверждают, что этим делом занимались - и отказались заниматься, - уже четверо судей, сейчас оно находится в руках пятого.
Расстрелянная машина
Подпись к фото,
После очередной попытки похищения
Убийство президента создало вакуум власти, который банды пытаются заполнить.
Правозащитники утверждают, что по всей стране насчитывается около 200 вооруженных группировок, более половины из них - в столице.
Банды и политики
Эксперты говорят, что вооруженные группировки имеют связи с коррумпированными политическими деятелями - как во власти, так и в оппозиции. Те снабжают банды оружием, финансами или политической защитой. Взамен банды выполняют "грязную работу", по необходимости провоцируя страх, нестабильность или, наоборот, поддержку тех или иных политиков.
Богатые бизнесмены, как считается, также имеют связи с бандами.
"Между политиками и некоторыми бандами всегда существовали связи, в основном в бедных кварталах с многочисленным электоратом. Но после выборов 2011 года эти отношения вышли на новый уровень - банды используются как субподрядчики для создания политического насилия ", - говорит Джеймс Боярд, эксперт по безопасности и профессор международных отношений в Государственном университете Гаити.
Если член банды арестован, для его освобождения (причем с отобранным при аресте оружием) бывает достаточно телефонного звонка.
"Судебных дел нет, - говорит Мари Рози Огюст Дюсена, представитель Национальной сети защиты прав человека Гаити (RNDDH). - Судьи не хотят работать с этими делами. Им платят банды. А некоторые полицейские поддерживают банды, предоставляя им бронированные машины и слезоточивый газ".
Некоторые полицейские сами состоят в бандах, говорит правозащитник Гедеон Жан: "Мы знаем, что в каждой банде есть как минимум два действующих или бывших полицейских. Мы знаем, что для похищений используются машины с полицейскими номерами. Причастна ли к этому полиция как институт, мы не знаем".
Полиция и банды
Некоторые действующие и бывшие полицейские имеют свою собственную банду под названием "Баз Пилат". Правозащитники говорят, что она контролирует часть главной улицы в центре Порт-о-Пренса.
Причастность полиции к действиям банд не является тайной. Зарплата среднего полицейского редко превышает 300 долларов в месяц, а некоторые живут в кварталах, контролируемых бандами. Для них это вопрос выживания, а не выбора.
Карта
Большая часть одного из беднейших районов столицы Сите-Солей контролируется самой мощной криминальной федерацией в Порт-о-Пренсе - G9 и ее союзниками. Местные источники утверждают, что она тесно связана с убитым президентом и его правящей партией, а ее специализация - вымогательство.
В сентябре G9 заблокировала главный топливный терминал в городе, что парализовало страну почти на два месяца и вызвало гуманитарный кризис.
Ее лидер - бывший офицер полиции Джимми Черизье по прозвищу "Барбекю", который иногда даже проводит пресс-конференции. Правда, на отправленное через посредников предложение поговорить с Би-би-си он не ответил.
Возможно, дело в том,что недавно Совет Безопасности ООН наложил на него санкции, обвинив в угрозе миру и стабильности на Гаити.
Соединенные Штаты и Канада недавно ввели отдельные санкции против двух гаитянских политиков, включая действующего председателя Сената Джозефа Ламберта, за якобы сотрудничество с бандами.
Эксперты полагают говорят, что санкции оказывают определенное влияние, потому что политики, обвиняемые в связях с бандами, на время затаились.
В Организации Объединенных Наций говорят о необходимости отправки на остров вооруженных сил, не связанных с ООН - последняя миссия миротворцев ООН запомнилась обвинениями в сексуальном насилии, а также тем, что миротворцы из Непала завезли на Гаити холеру. В результате эпидемии погибло около 10 тысяч человек.
Однако возглавить такие силы или хотя бы принять в них участие пока никто не спешит.
https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-63871316
Темы Криминал Коррупция
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Haiti: Inside the capital city taken hostage by brutal gangs
5 December 2022
Police at a crime sceneImage source, BBC / Goktay Koraltan
Image caption,
Police at a crime scene
By Orla Guerin
Senior International Correspondent
In Port-au-Prince you cannot see the boundaries, but you must know where they are. Your life may depend on it. Competing gangs are carving up the Haitian capital, kidnapping, raping, and killing at will. They demarcate their territory in blood. Cross from one gang's turf to another, and you may not make it back.
Those who live here carry a mental map, dividing this teeming city into green, yellow, and red zones. Green means gang free, yellow can be safe today and deadly tomorrow, and red is a no-go area. The green area is shrinking as heavily armed gangs tighten their grip.
Armed groups control - and terrorise - at least 60% of the capital and its surroundings, according to Haitian human rights groups. They encircle the city, controlling roads in and out. And the UN says the gangs killed almost 1,000 people here between January and June of this year.
This report contains content which some readers may find upsetting, including sexual violence
Port-au-Prince is nestled between green hillsides and the blue waters of the Caribbean. It is blanketed by heat and neglect. The rubbish is knee-deep in places - a putrid monument to a crumbling state. There is no head of state (the last one was killed in office), no functioning parliament (gangs control the area around it) and the US-backed prime minister, Ariel Henry, is unelected and deeply unpopular.
In effect the state is missing in action, as the people suffer overlapping crises. Almost half the population - 4.7 million Haitians - are facing acute hunger. In the capital around 20,000 people are facing famine-like conditions, according to the UN. This is a first for the Americas. Cholera has made a deadly comeback. But armed gangs are the greatest plague.
They set the clock here. Morning rush hour - between 06:00 and 09:00 - is peak kidnapping time. Many are snatched from the streets on their way to work. Others are targeted in the evening rush hour - from 15:00 to 18:00.
About 50 of the staff at our downtown hotel live in because it's too dangerous for them to go home. Few here go out after dark. The manager says he never leaves the building.
1,107 people kidnapped between January and October 2022
Kidnapping is a growth industry. There were 1,107 reported cases between January and October of this year, according to the UN. For some gangs it's a major income stream. Ransoms can run from $200 (?164) to $1m (?819,740). Most victims come back alive - if the ransom is paid - but they are made to suffer.
"Men are beaten and burned with materials like melted plastic," says Gedeon Jean, of Haiti's Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights. "Women and girls are subject to gang rape. This situation spurs relatives to find money to pay the ransom. Sometimes kidnappers call the relatives so they can hear the rape being carried out on the phone."
Morning in Delmas
We travel around by armoured car. Normally that's reserved for frontlines in warzones like Ukraine, but it's necessary in Port-au-Prince to ward off kidnappers. It is a protection that many here can't afford. It's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, prone to both natural and political disasters.
Kidnappers belong to competing gangs - which are mainly grouped into two large coalitions - G9 and G-Pep.
Main gang territories in Port-au Prince and surrounding areas
Driving to an early morning appointment in late November, we come across a crime scene in the middle-class suburb of Delmas 83. Bullet casings litter the pavement, glinting in the sunlight, and a man lies dead in a back alley, face down in a pool of blood.
A grey 4x4 pickup truck has veered into a wall, one side riddled with holes. An AK-47 lies on the ground beside it. Heavily armed police surround the pickup, some with faces covered and weapons drawn. Onlookers cluster together on the path. If they have questions, they don't ask them. When you live in the shadow of the gangs, it pays to be silent.
The police tell us they were involved in a shoot-out with a group of kidnappers, out early hoping to snatch their next victim. The gang fled on foot, one of them trailing blood. The suspected kidnapper was tracked to the alley, where he was killed.
"There was a battle between an officer and the bad guys. One of them died," says a police veteran of 27 years, who didn't want to be named.
He says the situation in the capital has never been worse. I asked if the gangs were unstoppable. "We stopped them. Today," he replies.
Across town that same morning Francois Sinclair, a 42-year-old businessman, heard a burst of gunfire as he was struck in traffic. He saw armed men holding up the two cars in front of him, so asked his driver to turn around. But as they tried to get away, they were spotted.
Francois SinclairImage source, BBC / Wietske Burema
Image caption,
Francois Sinclair
"Out of nowhere I was shot inside my own car, and there was blood everywhere," he tells us, sitting up on a trolley in a trauma hospital run by Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
"I could have been shot in the head," he says, "and there were other people in the car too." There's a bandage on his arm, where a bullet went straight through.
I ask if he has ever thought about leaving the country to escape the violence. "Ten thousand times," he replies. "I couldn't even call my mother to tell her what happened [to me] because she is getting old. The way things are here, it's better to leave if you can."
That's a refrain we hear again and again, but for most Haitians, there's nowhere to go.
ClaudetteImage source, BBC / Wietske Burema
Image caption,
Claudette is also a gunshot victim
The wards of the MSF hospital are full of gunshot victims, many hit by stray bullets. Claudette, who has a freshly bandaged stump in place of her left leg, tells me that she can never marry now that she is disabled. Lying nearby is 15-year-old Lelianne, who is doing a crossword puzzle to pass the time. She was shot in the stomach.
"My mom and I went out to get something to eat," she says. "While we were ordering I felt something. That's when I fell and screamed in agony. I didn't expect to survive. I usually hear gunshots further away from my house. On that day they drove closer."
Even Haiti's last serving president wasn't safe in his own home. Jovenel Moise was killed by gunmen in July of 2021. Police blamed Colombian mercenaries, about 20 of whom were arrested. But more than a year later, no-one has been tried here for pulling the trigger or ordering the assassination. Human rights campaigners say four judges have come and gone from the case. It's now in the hands of a fifth.
The killing of the president created a power vacuum which gangs have been competing to fill - with help from their friends.
Experts say that armed groups have ties to corrupt political figures - in power and in the opposition. They supply the gangs with weapons, or finance, or political protection. In return the gangs do their dirty work, generating fear, support, or instability, as required.
Recent key events in Haiti
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Wealthy businesspeople also have links to the gangs.
"There have always been relationships between politicians and some gangs, located mainly in poor neighbourhoods with high electorates. But since the election in 2011 those relationships have become institutionalised," says James Boyard, a security expert, and professor of international relations at the State University of Haiti. "They [the gangs] are used as subcontractors to create political violence."
Rights campaigners say there are about 200 armed groups across the country, more than half of them in the capital.
If a gang member is arrested, a phone call from their backers can get them released without delay - and with their guns. Human rights activists say there's plenty of crime, but no punishment.
1,377 people killed, injured or disappeared between June and September 2022
"There are no prosecutions," says Marie Rosy Auguste Ducena, of Haiti's National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH). "Judges don't want to work on these cases. They are paid off by the gangs. And some police are like a support system for the gangs, giving them armoured cars and tear gas."
Other officers are gang members, says rights activist Gedeon Jean. "We know that there are at least two serving or former policemen, in every gang. We know cars with police licence plates are used for kidnappings. Whether the police as an institution is involved, we don't know."
Some current and former police officers actually have their own gang, called Baz Pilate. Rights campaigners say it controls part of the main street in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Police collusion isn't a mystery. Officers can earn as little as $300 a month, and some live in gang-held neighbourhoods. For them it may be a matter of survival, not choice.
A husband's story
What's happening here - about two hours flying time from Miami - goes well beyond mere violence. It's as if the gangs of Port-au-Prince are engaged in a brutality contest, and anyone in this city of around one million souls can become a victim.
A slender man in his 30s - who has no gang affiliations - comes to tell us what he and his wife endured a few months ago. His neighbourhood is controlled by a gang, whose rivals came on a killing spree. For his safety we are not naming the area, or the armed group involved.
When he initially starts to speak, he carries on for 13 minutes without stopping - as if he cannot hold in his words or his anguish.
HusbandImage source, BBC / Goktay Koraltan
Image caption,
The husband spoke out about his wife's rape
"I told myself the shots are too close to us, and we should try to leave," he says. "But they were already storming the neighbourhood. I went back inside the house with my wife. I was so scared I was shaking. I did not know what to do. They mostly kill young men. My wife hid me under the bed and covered me with a pile of clothes. My nephew was hiding in the wardrobe."
Soon men entered the house, hitting his wife, and demanding information on local gang members. When his nephew tried to run, they shot and killed him. The husband remained in hiding, and in torment.
"I wanted to run away. I wanted to cry out. What hurts me the most is that when I was under the bed, I couldn't see but I could hear those men raping my wife. They were raping her, and I was under the bed, and I could say nothing."
Afterwards their house was burned, and he and his wife fled in different directions. They are still living apart, staying with friends and relatives, but he hopes they can set up home again with their young child.
What happened "is a scar that affects the body and the soul". His wife is now pregnant, and they do not know if he is the father, or if it is one of the attackers. Either way, he says he will accept the child and give it his name.
"What I endured was nothing," he says. "There is a lady who had only one child. They cut his throat in front of her. The young man who was not in a gang."
Husband and wife have been robbed of almost everything, including their love for their country. "Haiti is erased from our hearts," he says. "Any chance we get, we will leave."
At that he breaks down, his chest heaving as he weeps.
The testimonies I have gathered here are among the worst I have ever heard in more than 30 years as a foreign correspondent, reporting from over 80 countries. And it feels like we have barely scratched the surface.
For the gangs of Port-au-Prince, there are no limits.
In just a few days, I met three victims of gang rape - the youngest only 16. She and a relative were raped by the same attackers, who threatened afterwards to burn them alive inside their house. The other woman was six months pregnant at the time she was attacked. As she was being set upon, her husband was led away to his death. Months on she has not been able to find his body.
Increasingly, rape is used as a weapon by the gangs. They target women and girls living in areas controlled by their rivals. During a turf war in July in Haiti's poorest district, the sprawling Cite Soleil. Campaigners say more than 300 people were murdered - most of the bodies were charred - and at least 50 women and girls were gang raped.
Haiti's National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), which has documented the rapes in Cite Soleil, says many survivors "regret being alive". Twenty of them were raped in front of their children. Six saw their spouses being killed before being gang raped.
Most of Cite Soleil is controlled by the most powerful gang federation in Port-au-Prince - the G9 family and allies. Local sources say it had close ties to the assassinated president and his ruling party, and its speciality is extortion.
G9 blockaded the main fuel terminal in the city in September, paralysing the country for almost two months, and triggering a humanitarian crisis.
Its leader is a former police officer called Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed "Barbecue", who occasionally holds press conferences. We requested an interview through intermediaries, but had no response. He may be less talkative these days because he's recently been put under sanctions by the UN Security Council, accused of threatening the peace and stability of Haiti.
The United States and Canada recently sanctioned two Haitian politicians, including the sitting president of the Senate, Joseph Lambert, for allegedly collaborating with the gangs.
Sources here say the sanctions are having some impact because politicians who use the gangs now want to lie low.
'Criminals have taken a country hostage'
When Jean Simson Desanclos reached the deserted street at the edge of a gang-ridden suburb, he found nothing of his family except the burnt-out shell of the family's Black Suzuki. The charred remains of his wife and two daughters had already been taken to the morgue.
Image caption,
Burnt out car
Josette Fils Desanclos, 56, was taking one daughter Sarhadjie, 24, to university, and the other, Sherwood Sondje, shopping for her birthday. She was about to turn 29. Both girls had studied law like their father. They were his "princesses".
"On 20 August I lost everything," he says. "And it wasn't just my family. In all, eight people were killed that day. It was a massacre."
Jean Simson Desanclos with his wife and two daughters
Image caption,
Jean Simson Desanclos with his wife and two daughters
Mr Desanclos believes his wife and daughters resisted a kidnap attempt and were shot by a notorious gang called the 400 Mawazo, who were expanding their territory. "I point my fingers at them," he says. The killings happened on the outskirts of an area called Croix des Bouquet, which was already under the gang's control.
Mr Desanclos, who is softly spoken and smartly dressed, is a lawyer and human rights activist. He is now a man bereft - longing for the voices he will never hear again.
"You are always waiting for a call from your child telling you, 'Dad this' or 'Dad that'. I lost the love of my life and the two children we raised in this difficult country. It's like you are a multi-millionaire and suddenly, you are poor."
Despite the risk to himself, he is seeking justice for his wife and daughters. "Family is a sacred thing. Not pursuing justice would be betraying them," he says. "My daughters know their father is a fighter, who never abandons people, much less his own family. The risk is enormous, but what more can I lose now?"
He wants the world to understand one thing about the Haiti of today - that the gangs have free rein.
"Criminals have taken a country hostage," he says. "They make their own laws. They kill. They rape. They destroy. I would like my daughters to be the last sacrifice, the last young women killed."
He speaks with dignity, and conviction, but knows his wish may not be granted.
In Haiti, it is the gangs that function, rather than the state. Prime Minister Ariel Henry cannot even reach his own office because armed groups control the area. We made several requests for an interview with him, but these were declined.
3,886 forced to flee Cite Soleil area between 8 and 17 July - including at least 700 unaccompanied children
Haiti's government - such as it is - has issued "a distress call" for an international force to help restore order.
There's talk at the United Nations about the need for a non-UN armed force, but no-one seems in a hurry to lead it, or even to take part.
Foreign interventions have a bad name, and a bad history here. The last UN mission is remembered for allegations of sexual abuse, and for bringing cholera to Haiti, via UN peacekeepers from Nepal. The epidemic killed around 10,000 people.
There are mixed views here on the idea of foreign boots on the ground. There's support from some in business - who have used armed groups but now want them reined in - and from those trapped in gang-controlled areas. There's opposition from civil society leaders who say Haiti needs to go it alone.
While the international community debates and demurs, it is massacres as usual for the gangs.
Local sources say armed groups are brutally expanding their territory because elections are overdue. When politicians come looking for votes - in gang held areas - they have to pay off the gunmen.
The latest atrocity was at the northern entrance to Port-au-Prince on 30 November. According to local media reports, some in the area spotted armed men - from an emerging gang - trying to gain a foothold, and informed police.
The gunmen retaliated at night, killing at least 11 people. Some of the bodies were set alight.
The boundaries here are once again being redrawn in blood. Those living in the city need to update their mental map, as one more area is turning from green to red.
Additional reporting by Wietske Burema, Goktay Koraltan and Andre Paultre
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63707429
Haiti asks world for military help to curb chaos
8 October 2022
A demonstrator holds a machete during a protest in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.Image source, EPA
Image caption,
Protests and gang violence have rocked Haiti, plunging the country into a worsening political, economic and security crisis.
Haiti has asked for foreign military support to curb its gang violence crisis which has paralysed the country.
The Haitian government authorised Prime Minister Ariel Henry to request armed help due to "the risk of a major humanitarian crisis".
The US meanwhile urged its citizens in Haiti to leave due to the insecurity.
A group of powerful gangs have blocked the country's main fuel terminal since September, crippling its basic supplies like water and food.
It is not clear to whom the request for intervention has been sent to, and in what form the help would be given.
The UN said it had not received an official request from Haiti's government.
"That being said, we remain extremely concerned about the security situation in Haiti, the impact its having on the Haitian people, on our ability to do our work, especially in the humanitarian sphere," said UN spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric.
The US is also considering a request for a humanitarian corridor to restore fuel distribution within Haiti, according to state department spokesperson Vedant Patel.
Mr Patel did not say where the troops to support this would come from.
Varreux fuel terminal has been controlled and blockaded by a coalition of powerful gangs since last month, which has ground the whole country to a halt. Some hospitals have shut, while businesses and transport services stopped working in protest of destitution.
Civil unrest escalated since Mr Henry announced an end to government fuel subsidies on 11 September, which sent petrol and diesel prices skyrocketing.
Since then, protests and looting have intensified, with the capital, Port-au-Prince, at the heart of it. Food aid warehouses have been targeted, with an estimated $5m (?4.6m) worth of food aid lost in repeated attacks, according to Haiti's UN envoy.
It is unclear whether the Haitian government request for foreign military intervention would mean the return of UN peacekeeping troops, after leaving five years ago.
The UN's presence has left a mixed legacy in Haiti: its peacekeepers accepted partial responsibility for sparking a cholera epidemic more than a decade ago which killed about 10,000 people.
Haiti's government said eight people had died on Sunday from cholera, for the first time in three years - raising concerns over the potential for a health crisis too.
Of the many supplies that have been blocked by the country's gangs, clean water is a vital one - especially as cholera is spread via contaminated water.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and has suffered a number of recent crises, most notably the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise, in July 2021 and a massive earthquake that left more than 2,200 people dead just a month later.
Deaths are frequent, with more than 200 people killed in gang violence in Port-au-Prince in the space of just 10 days in July, according to figures from the UN.
Media caption,
Watch: Gunshots heard in Haiti streets as people take cover
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63181481
Like a warzone - Haitians surrounded by turf wars
A Haitian police officer stands guard in Port-au-Prince
8 August
Haiti in a humanitarian catastrophe - UN envoy
People ride a motorcycle with empty gasoline containers during a nationwide strike against rising fuel prices, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti September 26, 2022
27 September
Gunshots heard in Haiti streets as people take cover. Video, 00:01:01Gunshots heard in Haiti streets as people take cover
28 July
Haiti in a humanitarian catastrophe - UN envoy
27 sep 2022
People walk on an empty street with remains of barricades during a nationwide strike against rising fuel prices, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti September 26, 2022.Image source, Reuters
A chronic gang, economic and political crisis has led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti, the country's UN envoy has said.
Weeks of violence and attacks on food aid warehouses have rocked the nation's food security, Helen La Lime told an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
In protest of the dire situation, businesses have closed and transport services are not running.
Thousands are calling for Prime Minister Ariel Henry's resignation.
Civil unrest across the island escalated after he announced an end to government fuel subsidies on 11 September, which caused petrol and diesel prices to skyrocket.
Since then, protests and looting have intensified, with the capital, Port-au-Prince, at the heart of it.
Ms La Lime told the UN Security Council on Monday that an estimated 2,000 tonnes of food aid, valued at close to $5m (?4.6m), were lost following repeated attacks on local warehouses of the UN Food Programme.
"That would have collectively supported up to 200,000 of the most vulnerable Haitians over the next month", she said.
World Food Program's (WFP) executive director Valerie Guarnieri, who was also at the meeting, said: "The situation in Haiti has sadly reached new levels of desperation".
Inflation has risen to its highest level in a decade, and 40% of the country is relying on food assistance to survive, she said.
And Ms Guarnieri added that she expects food security to deteriorate further this year, with 1.3 million people in a state of emergency due to the crisis.
Criminal gangs are at the centre of Haiti's problems, and chronic gang violence has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.
Rates of gang violence, which had already shot up since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise by mercenaries a year ago, have reached shocking new levels since a battle erupted on 8 July between two criminal alliances, known as G9 and G-Pep.
But Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus told the UN Security Council that apart from some "isolated cases", violence in his country was "generally under control" and calm had returned to parts of the island.
At the meeting, Mr Geneus called on the international community to provide Haiti with "robust support" to ensure the police can fight against armed gangs.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63042307
Calls for calm in Haiti amid violent protests
18 September
A man with a burning tyre in the background
Like a warzone - Haitians surrounded by turf wars
8 August
A Haitian police officer stands guard in Port-au-Prince
Haiti gang violence kills more than 200 in 10 days
26 July
A girl who lived in Cite Soleil and was displaced due to the gang war in her neighborhood is seen in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 23 July 2022
Haitian children take shelter from deadly gang war
22 July
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