Haiti needs outside help to end 'nightmare' of gang violence -OHCHR

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on the international community on Friday to "urgently consider" sending a specialized support force to impoverished Haiti, which has been gripped by a "living nightmare" of gang violence.

Haiti's government in October asked for a "specialized armed force" to help combat armed gangs who had blockaded a critical fuel terminal.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shortly after proposed that one or several countries send such a force to help Haiti's police remove the threat posed by gangs.

"The Haitian National Police needs immediate coordinated international support... to strengthen its capacity to respond to the security situation in a manner consistent with its human rights obligations," Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement after a visit to Haiti.

People in Haiti were being terrorized by criminal gangs without the state being able to stop it, Turk said.

"It can only be described as a living nightmare," he said.

Haitian gangs have expanded their territory since the 2021 assassination of then-President Jovenel Moise. The resulting violence has left much of the country off-limits to the government and led to routine gun battles with police.

In his statement, Turk acknowledged Haiti's long history of international intervention, including after massive earthquakes that hit the country in 2010 and 2021.

"International involvement needs to be approached with humility, with the consistent, active participation of the people of Haiti and with a constant eye on the most vulnerable," Turk said.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Brendan O'Boyle; Writing by Valentine Hilaire and Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Nick Macfie)