Haiti is approaching a “point of no return” as it struggles to respond to escalating gang violence, the top United Nations official in the country has said.

Maria Isabel Salvador, the UN special representative to the Caribbean nation, delivered the warning to the UN Security Council on Monday.

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“As gang violence continues to spread to new areas of the country, Haitians experience growing levels of vulnerability and increasing scepticism about the ability of the state to respond to their needs,” Salvador said.

“Haiti could face total chaos,” she said, adding that aid and support for the international force deployed to stem rampant gang violence was desperately needed to avoid that fate.

“I urge you to remain engaged and answer the urgent needs of the country and its people,” she said.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti faces severe political instability, with swaths of the country under the control of rival armed gangs who carry out widespread murders, rapes and kidnappings.

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Salvador cited cholera outbreaks and gender-based violence alongside a deteriorating security situation.

Most recently, Salvador said, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, freeing more than 500 prisoners during the assault. It was the fifth prison break in under a year and “part of a deliberate effort to entrench dominance, dismantle institutions and instil fear”, she said.

Armed gangs have also been increasingly battling for control of the capital, Port-au-Prince, with violence intensifying as rival gangs attempt to establish new territories, she said.

Meanwhile, a Kenyan-led force authorised by the UN has failed to push back the gangs since the deployment began in June of last year. The mission has about 1,000 police officers from six countries, short of the 2,500 originally planned.

Kenya’s national security adviser, Monica Juma, told the council in a video briefing from Nairobi that the force has entered “a decisive phase of its operation” where gangs are coordinating operations and attacking people and strategic installations, and targeting the political establishment.

While the Haitian police and the multinational force have launched intensive anti-gang operations and achieved some notable progress, especially in securing critical infrastructure, she said a significant gap exists.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also warned that further international support was “required immediately to allow the national police to prevent the capital slipping closer to the brink”, according to an unpublished report seen by the AFP news agency.

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The report detailed the surge in violence, with the UN recording 2,660 homicides in the three months since December 2024 – a 41.3 percent increase over the previous quarter.

But the report also pointed to a high civilian toll in efforts to counter the gangs.

During the period, anti-gang operations resulted in 702 people killed, with 21 percent estimated to be innocent civilians, the report said.

There was also an alarming increase in gender-based violence, with 347 incidents reported in the five months to February 2025, according to the UN data.

Collective rape was the most common violation, accounting for 61 percent of cases.