Gang Attacks in Haiti Cause Over A Million To Flee

In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the G9 Family and Allies, which is led by Barbeque, are violently attacking and destroying homes. The gangs burn the homes of the residents and go through killing them in order to take control of the city and certain neighborhoods..

 “The population cannot live, cannot work, cannot move,” said one of Haiti’s police unions on CNN, also describing it as “the greatest security failure in modern Haitian history.” There are hundreds of thousands of children being targeted by the gangs and are either being killed or they are getting exploited and forced to help the criminals commit crimes. The children also receive large amounts of abuse, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General said, “They threaten, beat, rape and kill children. They have committed multiple abuses of children’s rights, including the rights to life, to education, and to freedom of movement.”

This situation started after 2021, when the president of Haiti, Jovenol Moise was assassinated. This left Haiti with no leadership which was when the gangs started to take over, starting with violence in order to take control of communities. The amount of weapons and ammunition being let in unchecked fuels this problem. On top of that, weak law enforcement allows the gangs to run wild without any consequence or punishment for their actions. In January 2023, 18 police officers were killed in Port-au-Prince by gang members.

In 2024 alone, more than 5,600 people died in Haiti due to gang violence. 2024 was one of the worst years of violence, homicide rates even doubling during this year. Entire neighborhoods would get run through and destroyed, leaving the city in rubble with damage seen everywhere. In March 2024, the gangs raided the two main prisons in Port-au-Prince, the National Prison and the Croix-des-Bouquets which put them in a state of emergency. The raids ended up leading to 4,000 inmates escaping. The inmates inside the National Prison are the highest profile criminals in the country. Inside that prison there are lots of gang leaders, so when this prison was raided it added gang leaders to the already ongoing crisis.

Recently, there was a clash between a gang and a large group of men that had broken away from it and there were dozens of victims, including 10 children that were involved. In 2023 there was a large number of gangs who agreed to stop the violence and team together which makes this event strange as no gang members should be fighting each other. As of right now the gang raids have shown no signs of slowing down and are still ongoing to this day with no improvement.