Amid increased violence and human rights abuses comes a troubling revelation: an estimated 85% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, is controlled by gangs.
From killing 1,086 people between February and March to causing a ban on U.S. flights to the capital until September 2025, rising gang activity has proven to be detrimental to the nation’s future, and humanitarian leaders are voicing concerns for what’s next.
“We’ve lost the war against gangs,” Ralph Chevry, a board member of the Haitian Police Force, told The Informer. “If something isn’t done quickly, Port-au-Prince might fall [and] if they fall, Haiti falls.”
International actors like the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSSM) have been in Haiti working toward de-escalating the situation and restoring an efficient democracy, but its personnel of 1,000 are quickly being overpowered by the country’s estimated 300 active criminal groups.
Haitian-American and retired U.S. Army Colonel Dr. Joseph Baptiste believes the armed forces in Haiti must be better trained and equipped to confront the rising violence.
“The police force is not trained to provide security. They are trained to…help the population,” Baptiste told The Informer. “I believe the gangs are able to do whatever they’re doing because they have nobody in front of them.”
To expand their territorial control in Port-au-Prince, the gangs attacked the city’s residential communes of Carrefour and Kenscoff from Jan. 27 to March 27, resulting in 115 civilian deaths, the sexual assault of at least seven women and young girls, and the displacement of more than 3,000 residents.
Further, on March 31, criminal groups charged a prison in Mirebalais, freeing 500 inmates.
“The scale and duration of this violence overwhelmed the Haitian National Police despite support from the Armed Forces of Haiti and the MSSM, further obstructing stabilization,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, during the most recent UN Security Council briefing on the nation’s situation.
While these groups have been present in the Caribbean country since the 1950s, the increased frequency of their brutality was catalyzed by the political instability following the assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
Ariel Henry was appointed Haiti’s interim Prime Minister after Moïse’s death. He was replaced with the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) in April 2024, tasked with facilitating successful presidential elections by early 2026. The council, currently led by Fritz Jean, consists of seven voting and two non-voting members, with its president rotating every five months.
The TPC seemed like a step toward stabilizing the country’s political climate—until three members were accused of bribing the director of Haiti’s National Bank of Credit in a corruption case in October 2024. The accused—Smith Augustin, Emmanuel Vertilaire and Louis Gérald Giles—are still voting members of the council, making Haiti even more vulnerable and further harboring distrust from citizens.
“We need to realize that what was designed has failed, but it can be changed. It can be modified,” Chevry said. “There should be more of a proactive effort to get Haiti back on the track to democracy.”
A Call for International Support
Haiti is in dire need of international assistance to effectively restore its political, economic and social stability.
According to the UN’s 2025 Humanitarian and Needs Response Plan, $908.2 million is needed to provide protection and aid to the country’s vulnerable populations, but only $58.7 million has been funded since February.
As the world’s first Black republic, Haiti has been a significant symbol of liberation since it gained independence as the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere in 1804.
The country went on to help other countries gain independence, especially through its support of Simón Bolívar, who led Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela to liberation from the Spanish Empire.
Even before the Haitian Revolution, the nation helped the U.S. in breaking away from British rule during the American Revolutionary War. The French wealth obtained from Haitian plantations aided the colonists’ efforts, and, in the 1779 Siege of Savannah 500 Haitian soldiers supported American and French forces in battle against the British.
Because of these circumstances, Eric Walcott, the director of strategic partnership and corporate development for the Institute of Caribbean Studies, believes the international community is indebted to Haiti and must prioritize assisting the effort against the gang violence plaguing the country.
“The Haitians really need our help, and they’re deserving of it,” Walcott told The Informer. “They’re one of the oldest nation states and they have paid a huge price.”
Walcott believes that the MSSM, while outnumbered, has positively impacted Haiti’s situation, and that the Kenyan-led mission will help reconnect members of the diaspora in Africa and the Caribbean to each other – something that is crucial for unity and understanding between the global Black community.
“[Haiti] is where we go to claim our freedom. It’s where we go to assert our Africanness,” Walcott said. “I think if we don’t do anything within the next three months, or the next week or two, there’s going to be carnage over there.”
