UN News Today 02 October 2026 |

Haiti’s people trapped between gang violence and destruction

We start in Haiti, where the Caribbean island nation’s people are still in the grip of lethal gang violence as it continues to “adapt and expand”, the UN’s top rights official, Volker Türk, said on Friday.

In an update to the Human Rights Council, Mr. Türk welcomed the first Gang Suppression Force operations, mandated by the UN Security Council.

These will help boost security in Haiti “but the Force remains far below the strength needed”, Mr. Türk insisted, in support of its “full, accelerated deployment” with human rights safeguards embedded. 

At least 5,700 people have been confirmed killed or injured by gangs – or during operations against them – since 1 January, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR.

Gang members have also kidnapped more than 230 people and raped at least 1,000 women and girls. The real figures are likely much higher, Mr. Türk said.

In his update, the High Commissioner for Human Rights also warned that “extortion, looting and destruction of property” are crippling economic activity in Haiti. 

The “constant danger” prevents people from reaching schools, hospitals, and essential services, Mr. Türk stressed.

Ukraine war threatens even greater regional disaster and must end

Staying with the UN human rights chief, who’s also warned that the ongoing war in Ukraine risks an even greater regional disaster unless Russia’s full-scale invasion ends.

Speaking at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. Türk condemned what he called a “human rights catastrophe” in Ukraine, marked by “shocking levels of sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war” by Russian forces:

“The full-scale invasion unleashed by the Russian Federation is killing and injuring hundreds of people every week, as frontlines barely move. Apartment buildings, schools, medical centres, railways, seaports, gas stations, shops and logistics and telecommunications companies have been hit in recent attacks.”

Mr. Türk said that the Russian leadership should also “consider what this war is doing to their own society”, which he maintained was becoming a militarized economy “that puts death and destruction ahead of healthcare and education”. 

During the first eight months of this year, UN human rights monitors in Ukraine have verified nearly 15,300 civilians killed and injured. On average, that’s more than 400 every week.

Gaza: WHO appeals for massive aid influx ahead of winter 

Repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and more from Israel into Gaza are having devastating consequences for Palestinians who urgently need them.

That’s the message from the UN World Health Organization (WHO), whose Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, urged the Israeli authorities to “release the pressure” on medical supplies.

She also stressed that essential medicines and prosthetics “should not be considered as dual use” – and banned by Israel, on the grounds that they could be used by Hamas fighters. Instead, they are “medical items anybody needs anywhere to run a hospital or a clinic”, she said:

“A truck full of non-priority supplies or the right supplies arriving too late doesn’t save lives; that’s the question that actually matters. Not how much cross[es] the border, but whether the extraordinary health workers that I meet every time when I’m in Gaza, whether they have the supplies, when and where needed, and where the patients are getting the medical care they need and deserve. And today, unfortunately, that answer is clearly, ‘no’.”

It is almost 12 months since a fragile ceasefire agreement was reached between Hamas fighters and Israel; it has not prevented ongoing Israeli airstrikes and other military activity. Gaza’s humanitarian situation remains “overwhelming”, warned the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. 

As in previous winters in Gaza, the enclave’s residents are expected to face a heightened risk of preventable disease outbreaks, linked to the absence of safe shelter, a lack of clean water and the high prevalence of rats, whose bites transmit infection. The destruction of public health laboratories has complicated the task of identifying potential epidemics, WHO warned.

Daniel Johnson, UN News