Port au Prince – At least 164 people were killed in violence between January and February in

Haiti: this was stated by the National Commission Jistis ak Lape (JILAP, in Creole, Justice and Peace in Italian)

and was published by the press yesterday in Port au Prince, at a time when the country is experiencing an

escalation of violence that has forced the police to implement a new plan for public safety.

According to the note sent to Fides, the Commission found that 138 of the 164 people killed died as a result of

gunshot wounds, and reported that last month 70 people were killed in the capital and in other parts of the

country, with an average of three cases per day.

An unprecedented wave of assaults and crimes was recorded earlier this month where more than a dozen people

were killed, especially in the capital, and many organizations and also the Catholic Church have appealed to

authorities to take necessary measures.

According to other reports sent to Fides, there have been episodes such as vandalism and violence against

religious institutions (see Fides 12 and 14/03/2015) and also in schools, where groups of high school students

attack teachers and other adults in the school or in the vicinity. The population now avoids going to some places

which are considered at risk, such as banks and the center of the capital.

According to the report of JILAP, 1,136 people were victims of violence during the year 2014, of these, 942 were

cases of murder with firearms. Between October and December 2014, the organization documented 284 cases of

violence, of which 252 were homicides caused by bullets.

The data released by JILAP differ from those of the group that brings together Haitian organizations for the

defense of Human Rights (POHDH), according to which there were a total of 1,004 violent deaths in Haiti last

year: 715 people killed with firearms, 254 due to road accidents and 35 were stabbed. (CE) (Agenzia Fides

20/03/2015