Attachments
Summary highlights
Gangs’ expansion and the pressure on public security strategies.
Gang attacks carried in and out of Port-au-Prince are putting immense pressure on the Haitian National Police (HNP) and the Multinational Security Support (MSS) forces. Since its deployment in June 2024, the mission has faced challenges as great as the expectations it has raised among the Haitian population and the importance it has assumed in the eyes of the international community. Although it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions, the MSS has not yet enabled the HNP to reverse the balance of power with the gangs. By land, the capital remains just as isolated from the rest of the country, with gangs controlling the main highways and having driven up the cost of extortion on the transport of goods, particularly in the Canaan area, an essential passageway to the north and centre of the country. Meanwhile, the total closure of the Gressier area, a unique gateway to the south, has isolated a third of the country, which now depends on coastal shipping for its supplies.
The centrifugal dynamics of violence in Port-au-Prince.
The territorial facets of violence in Haiti are marked by a strong centrifugal dynamic. Since July 2024, gang violence has risen at the limits of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, particularly in Ganthier, under attack by the 400 Mawozo gang, and Gressier. In October, the spread of violence was dramatically accentuated by a massacre committed by the Gran Grif Gang in Artibonite. The gangs’ attacks show a desire to expand their reach for strategic reasons, including territorial control, arms and drug trafficking, and greater influence over larger populations and resources. Faced with this challenge, the MSS mission and the HNP are still unable to respond to the opening of multiple fronts or to occupy the field over the medium term. These operational shortcomings benefit the gangs who continue, to a large extent, to play cat-and-mouse with the forces of law and order.
Homicides are falling, but gang pressure keeps rising.
The current state of violence in Haiti offers two hard truths. While data from April to June shows a 45% decrease in homicides compared with the previous quarter, this has not resulted in improved living conditions or long-term stability for Haitians, especially in areas that remain under gang control. In qualitative terms, gangs in Haiti continue to exert enormous pressure on the communities living under their control, a dynamic illustrated in particular by the large increase in rape and gender-based violence figures, as well as population displacement.