The United Nations on Friday strongly criticised United States for striking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific allegedly carrying drug traffickers and urged it to halt the attacks, calling it “extrajudicial killings”. “These attacks — and their mounting human cost — are unacceptable. The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said. This appeared to be the first condemnation from United Nations organisations over the strikes on vessels by US. Earlier, US President Donald Trump justified the action on vessels, calling it necessary to stop the flow of drugs into America. UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that the rights chief, Volker Türk has called for an investigation into the strikes. Türk said that over 60 people have been allegedly killed in the attacks on boats since early September. “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable,” she told a UN briefing in Geneva. Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”
