Haiti’s gangs have ‘near-total control’ of the capital : NPR

The security guards watch the Prime Minister of Haiti, Alix Didier Son-Aime, at the center, speaks with the accusation of Mexico, Jesus Cisneros, after having attended a significant event a year since the start of the multinational security support mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Thursday.

Odelyn Joseph / AP

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Odelyn Joseph / AP

United Nations – The Haiti gangs have obtained “almost total control” from the capital and the authorities cannot stop escalating violence through the poor Caribbean nation, held senior UN officials on Wednesday.

About 90% of the capital

Port-au-Prince is now under the control of criminal groups that extend attacks not only in the surrounding areas, but beyond previously peaceful regions, Ghada Fathy Waly, Executive Director of the United Nations Office and Crime, told Ghada and Crime, in the United Nations Security Council.

“The southern Haiti, which was until recently isolated from violence, experienced a sharp increase in gang’s incidents,” she said. “And in the east, criminal groups exploit land routes, including key crossings like Belladere and Malpass, where attacks on police and customs agents have been reported.”

Waly said that the authority of the State to governing is quickly shrinking as gang control develops with cascade effects. The criminal groups are part of the vacuum left by the absence or limited service for public services and establish “parallel governance structures”, and the control of gangs of the main commercial routes has paralyzed legal trade, leading to the outbreak of prices for the cooking of fuel and rice, Haiti’s corner food, she said.

The UN deputy secretary general, Miroslav Jenca, told the council “the encirclement of gangs during Port-au-Prince” and that their strengthened solution in the capital and beyond is “to bring the situation closer to the edge”.

“Without an increased action of the international community, the total collapse of the presence of the state in the capital could become a very real scenario,” he warned.

The gangs have increased in power since the assassination of President Jenel Moses in July 2021 and previously estimated at 85% of the capital. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination.

A mission supported by the UN led by the Kenyan police arrived in Haiti last year to help suffocate the violence of the gangs, but the mission remains in sub-employed and sub-financial, with only 40% of the 2,500 staff members initially envisaged. The proposal of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in February so that the UN provides drones, fuel, soil and air transport and other non -lethal supports to the mission led by Kenya to the council.

In response to gangs, the UNUDC Waly said there had been rapid growth in the number and activities of private security companies and vigilant self -defense groups, some trying to protect their communities while others act illegally and collide with gangs.

“In the past three months,” said Jenca, “these groups have killed at least 100 men and a woman suspected of gang or collaboration association.”

He said that the last three months have also increased by gangs with the United Nations political mission by playing 364 incidents of sexual violence involving 378 survivors just from March to April.

A new United Nations expert report covering the period from October to February to February said that the gangs had exploited the political disorders and the disorganized response to the Haiti security crisis, highlighting political ambitions and allegations of corruption in competition in the Haiti transitional directors.

“While the expansion of territorial control brings gangs of additional sources of income and negotiation power,” said experts, “these attacks are also supported by individuals trying to destabilize the political transition from their own political objectives.”

A major result is that very little progress has been made to restore public security or implement the roadmap for the organization of national elections by February 2026, experts monitoring an arms embargo in Haiti and sanctions against the main gang leaders declared in the report to the Security Council.

With a low national police force confronted with acute tensions in its direction, an army that needs reconstruction and the limited capacity of multinational force, experts have warned that the gangs will continue “to have the upper hand unless international support is supplied stronger”.

As for vigilance groups, they said, they “often include local police, some of whom actively participate in human rights violations”.

Haitian national police also carried out “a worrying number of extrajudicial murders … with members of allegedly presumed gangs summarized,” said the experts, highlighting 281 summary executions by police units specialized in 2024, including 22 women and 8 children.

Despite the UN arms embargo in Haiti, the gangs continue to obtain more powerful weapons not only from regional civil markets, but police stocks in Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic, experts said.