MORE than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year as a UN-backed mission led by Kenya struggles to contain rampant gang violence, officials said on Tuesday.

The number of killings increased by more than 20 per cent compared with all of 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office. In addition, more than 2,200 people were reported injured and nearly 1,500 kidnapped, it said.

“These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti, but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected,” UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said in a statement.