PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Armed gangs have unleashed a new wave of atrocities across Haiti’s capital, driving approximately 30,000 people from their homes in the past ten days in one of the worst spikes of violence the Caribbean nation has seen this year.
The attacks have been concentrated in Cité Soleil, an impoverished neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where witnesses describe men with machetes setting fire to houses with families still inside, beheading and shooting civilians at random, and looting every shop in their path.
“They Burned, Beheaded, Shot, Killed”
Dorlean Boudin, a resident of Sarthe near Cité Soleil, told the UN World Food Programme she watched gangs overrun her neighborhood. “There were men with machetes setting fire to houses with people inside,” she said. “They burned, beheaded, shot, killed — and if you had a shop, they looted everything.”
Another displaced woman, Anidette Saint Fleur, said she fled with only her identification documents as gunfire erupted around her home. “We have nothing — no money, no roof — and we don’t know if or when we’ll be able to return,” she told WFP.
1.4 Million Displaced Nationwide
The latest violence pushes Haiti’s internally displaced population past 1.4 million — more than 12 percent of the entire country. Port-au-Prince has become the epicenter, with an estimated 90 percent of the city now believed to be under gang control.
The crisis extends far beyond displacement. Some 5.8 million Haitians, roughly 52 percent of the population, face crisis-level food insecurity or worse. Gangs have seized control of critical roads, farmland, and port infrastructure, choking off humanitarian supply lines and transforming the country into a transshipment hub for drug and weapons trafficking.
Children Recruited Into Gangs
The UN has documented a surge in child recruitment, with children now comprising an estimated 30 to 50 percent of some gang ranks. Human rights officials have also documented child trafficking and forced labor by armed groups operating with near-total impunity.
UN-Backed Force Arrives — But Slowly
A UN-authorized Gang Suppression Force began deploying to Haiti in April 2026, with Chadian troops among the first to arrive. The force’s commander landed in mid-May to begin operations. But the deployment remains far below the scale needed to retake territory from heavily armed gangs that have had years to entrench their positions.
The violence has continued unabated despite a UN arms embargo intended to choke off the flow of weapons to Haitian gangs. Cross-border smuggling of small arms and light weapons has fueled the escalation, rendering the embargo largely ineffective on the ground.
The World Food Programme has reached 8,500 newly displaced people with emergency food supplies including rice, pulses, oil, and fortified flour. Nine WFP-supported schools serving approximately 12,000 students have been forced to suspend meal distributions as the security situation deteriorates.
Haiti has been in crisis since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse plunged the nation into political turmoil. Multiple transitional governments have failed to restore order, and gangs have steadily expanded their grip on the capital and surrounding regions.