Human Rights Watch reports that sexual violence has become yet another escalating and "horrific" tool of the gangs that keep spreading their power in Haiti. Some 4,000 women and girls have reported being raped by gang members just this year,

PANAMA CITY/PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - United Nations evacuation flights are set to land in Panama City this week as the international organization removes staff from Haiti due to a sharp escalation in violence by armed gangs that have expanded their control over the capital Port-au-Prince.

The statement was issued just days after gangs launched a pre-dawn attack Tuesday around an upper-class community in Haiti’s capital, forcing residents armed with machetes and guns to fight side-by-side with police to repel gunmen.

Gang violence has forced many children to seek refuge in overcrowded schools repurposed as shelters or with host families, often with little to no access to clean water, food, or healthcare.

There are reports that the United Nations is evacuating a small number of staff in Haiti as gang violence escalates in Port-au-Prince. More than 40,000 people have been displaced from the capital in the last ten days according to U.

Since January, nearly five thousand civilian deaths have occurred as a result of relentless gang warfare in Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital city, and its immediate environs. The country itself has slid into a catastrophic humanitarian emergency,