WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says it has received only 19 per cent of the requested US$28 million in international aid to deal with gender-based violence in Haiti.

UNFPA director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Susana Sottoli, says 94 per cent of women in Haiti are at risk of gender-based violence and their bodies have become “weapons of terror” for armed gangs.

“Ninety-four per cent of women in Haiti are exposed to some form of gender-based violence and of all the reports received nearly 80 per cent concern sexual violence,” said Sottoli.

Haiti is going through a serious political and social situation due to gangs which control more than 80 per cent of the capital Port-au-Prince.

“Currently, there is no free and safe place in Haiti for women and especially for adolescent girls. For women, any activity has become an adventure with a very high risk that their lives, and especially their bodies, will go wrong,” said Sottoli.

The UNFPA said that this “war” is taking place on “a battlefield that is women’s bodies,” with gender violence, and especially sexual violence, the weapon most used by these armed gangs.

It said gangs use women as “negotiating chips” and rape becomes a method of extortion to control territories or obtain funds.

The United Nations said that between January and March 2024, cases of sexual violence increased fivefold. Currently, about 1,500 cases are reported each month but this figure could be much higher as most raped women suffer their trauma in silence and do not report it. Some even commit suicide.

Haiti’s political and socio-economic crisis heightened following the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his private residence overlooking the capital.

No one has appeared in court in Haiti in connection with his death, although some people have appeared before a United States court on charges linked to the killing.