section_path: History (2020–2022)/2022 crisis/Sexual violence
section_name: Sexual violence
paragraph_text: Sexual violence
  
  In December 2023, the U.S. sanctioned four gang leaders, one of whom—Johnson André—was the leader of the 5 Segond gang, which the U.S. Treasury Department identified as being responsible for over 1,000 cases of sexual violence in 2022. Rape—which only became a criminal offense in Haiti in 2005—is being used by gangs as a means of humiliating those living in rival gang neighborhoods. Abortion is illegal in Haiti, so rape victims are legally required to carry any resulting pregnancy to term in a country with one of the highest mortality rates for mothers outside of war zones in Sudan and Yemen.