UN chief apologizes to Haitians, cites ‘glimmers of hope’ during visit to gang-ravaged nation
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered a personal apology to Haitians on Tuesday, saying the international community had failed them—but he also insisted there were “glimmers of hope” in a country battered by gang violence and political paralysis.
Visiting a former school in Port-au-Prince that now shelters more than 1,250 people forced from their homes by armed groups, Guterres listened as residents described living in crowded, stifling conditions. “Fifty people to a room, ten families, with no privacy,” one mother of four told him. A neighbor complained of bedbugs and children being denied schooling.
“I ask your forgiveness for not having been able to mobilize the international community,” Guterres said, speaking directly to the families. “We know how much you have suffered, and I am here to listen to you.”
The United Nations’ $880 million humanitarian plan for Haiti in 2026 is barely a quarter funded—a shortfall that underscores what Guterres called “the biggest disgrace: indifference.”
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been in a downward spiral for years. Powerful gangs carry out killings, kidnappings, rapes and looting with near impunity. The security crisis worsened sharply in early 2024, when coordinated gang attacks forced the unelected prime minister to resign. An interim presidential council took over, but its mandate expired in February, leaving executive power with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, who greeted Guterres on arrival.
Haiti has not held elections since 2016, largely because of security concerns. Its last president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in July 2021.
Nearly 1.5 million Haitians are now internally displaced in a country of about 11 million. More than 5 million face severe food insecurity, according to UN data.
“Let’s be clear: gangs have been terrorizing Haiti. Institutions have been weakened,” Guterres told reporters in Port-au-Prince. “But the biggest disgrace is indifference—the indifference of a world that has looked away.”
Arriving by helicopter from the Dominican Republic, Guterres wrote on X: “The humanitarian situation here is desperate, but there are faint glimmers of hope.”
One of those glimmers, he said, is the new international Gang Suppression Force (GSF), authorized by the UN Security Council last year. Currently fewer than 1,000 troops from Chad, Mongolia, Jamaica, Guatemala and El Salvador are on the ground, with a planned build-up to 5,500 uniformed personnel including police and soldiers.
The GSF is meant to eventually replace the under-equipped Multinational Security Support mission (MSS), which had been tasked with backing up Haiti’s national police. Traveling in an armored vehicle, Guterres visited the Vertieres camp where the first GSF contingent is based.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said Monday that the new force is “urgently needed.” According to his office, gang violence has claimed at least 2,300 lives, injured 1,100 and resulted in 99 kidnappings since the start of 2026. A report from late March documented more than 5,500 gang-related deaths between March 1, 2025 and January 15, 2026, with nearly 3,500 occurring during anti-gang operations.
Despite the grim toll, Guterres argued that the GSF deployment marks a turning point. “For the first time in many years, there’s finally some light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.