UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Powerful gangs that control much of Haiti are increasingly ruthless and better armed despite a weapons embargo, the United Nations (UN) said Tuesday.

UN experts charged with monitoring UN sanctions against the gangs said they worried about the spread of violence across the impoverished country with a weak transitional government, no president or parliament and an outgunned police force.

But they were also concerned about the growing brutality of these crime gangs, which commit murder, rape, kidnapping and even massacres, the report said.

“With the absence of an effective government response, gangs continue to have free rein to conduct attacks with impunity and expand their territorial control,” the report said.

This stems in large part from their considerable firepower.

In 2022, the UN Security Council passed sanctions targeting certain well-known gang leaders in Haiti. This was later broadened to a total weapons embargo, except for sales to the government security forces.

But the embargo has seen only spotty enforcement and the gangs keep acquiring enough guns and ammunition “to sustain their firepower on multiple fronts”, the report said.

During the reporting period of October 2024 to February 2025, the gangs obtained increasing amounts of automatic rifles, “reinforcing their lethal capacity and presenting an additional challenge for security forces”.

Besides weapons shipments from the United States, these experts reported what they called diversions of guns from stockpiles of the Haitian police and authorities in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, thanks to corrupt cops.

Despite the deployment of an underfinanced and underequipped multinational force led by Kenya to help the Haitian authorities, very little progress has been made toward restoring law and order, the UN said.

“Gangs will continue to have the upper hand unless stronger international support is provided,” the report said.

Haiti has suffered from political instability, poverty, corruption, natural disasters and other woes for many years.

Gang violence has been on the rise since 2024 when then-prime minister, Ariel Henry, resigned amid an assault by gangsters opposed to him.

Haiti has no sitting parliament and has not held a presidential election since 2016. The man elected president then, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in 2021.

The country is run by a weak transitional council that is supposed to prepare for elections.