Comment by bawolff
7 hours ago
> Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday that drone strikes carried out in Haiti over the past year have killed at least 1,243 people, including 17 children, many of whom had no apparent links to the criminal groups the attacks seek to squash.
> Launched by Haitian law enforcement forces and private contractors working for Vectus Global between March 1, 2025, and Jan. 21, 2026, the strikes also injured at least 738 people, according to the organization’s report. At least 49 of the injured appeared to have no ties to gangs or other criminal groups.
The first paragraph made it sound like the majority were bystanders, while the second made it sound like it was 5%.
Maybe that is still unacceptable collateral damage, but it'd be nice if the article was more specific than "many" so we know what we are actually talking about here.
> private contractors
Mercenaries with drones, just great.
It is kind of interesting how they get around being called mercenaries (mercenaries are very restricted under international law and have much less rights). I think they usually claim various technicalities.
My understanding that 100% were killed extrajudicially. Only hope that when it comes to US the drones would carry Tasers.
At this point the situation in Haiti looks a lot like a war (non international armed conflict). I don't think extrajudicial is a term generally used for people killed during war.
I have no idea how Haitian law looks at it, but the UN Security Council grants the Gang Suppression Force a pretty clear mandate. They specifically authorized to neutralize, isolate, and deter gangs, search for and siege weapon, and prevent the loss of life and within the limits of its capacities and areas of deployment, adopt urgent temporary measures on an exceptional basis.[0] While emphasizing the need to apply arrests and detain offenders, they are allowed to strike back. Drones are useful as indirect fire support so if proper rules of engagement are followed, maybe some of those killing are lawful.
[0] https://docs.un.org/en/S/RES/2793(2025)