Haiti has a population of some 12m. Haitians are more likely to suffer from severe hunger than people in war-racked Sudan. Only 10% of clinics are fully operational. Some 1.4m people have been displaced—about as many as were displaced by a huge earthquake in 2010. The Haitian National Police (PNH) has a depleted force of just 13,500 officers, well below international norms; the force has been under civilian control only since 1995. A new police chief, Vladimir Paraison, took up his post in August 2025 and has ferociously pursued the gangs. He plans to recruit 4,000 officers a year to raise a police-to-resident ratio that has always been far below international standards.
Jovenel Moïse, Haiti's last elected president, was assassinated on July 7th 2021. A team of 17 Colombian mercenaries, all highly trained former soldiers, stormed his residence shortly after midnight and shot him 12 times in his bedroom, also wounding his wife. His two children hid in the bathroom. The mercenaries were contracted by CTU, a security firm based in South Florida, co-owned by Antonio Intriago and Arcangel Pretel. Three of the Colombians died in a gun battle with police after the assassination; the rest quickly surrendered.
Four years on, justice has advanced along two tracks. In Haiti, dozens of suspects were jailed pending trial, including the 17 Colombians, but several key suspects escaped when armed gangs attacked prisons. No trial date has been set. In Miami, 11 defendants face federal charges; six have pleaded guilty (five to conspiracy to kill) and received life sentences. The remaining five are set for trial in March 2026. The case is complicated by the involvement of American government informants: Mr Pretel was in the pay of the FBI, and at least two other defendants were former DEA informants. Most evidence and legal filings are sealed.
Hurricane Melissa struck Haiti on October 28th 2025, killing at least 20 people, including ten children. Heavy rains caused a flash flood that swept away makeshift homes on the banks of the Digue river in Petit-Goâve, on the southern peninsula. The main road into Jacmel, on Haiti's south coast, was sheered off by storm surge.
Haiti held its first tolerably free elections in 1990. There have been no elections since 2016, when Jovenel Moïse won the presidency with the support of less than 10% of registered voters; turnout was 18%, the lowest ever. The country has not had an elected government of any kind since Moïse's assassination in 2021. The economy has been in deep recession for seven years. Haiti's electoral council has scheduled elections for August 2026, and in February 2026 the electoral body began registering political parties wanting to field candidates. In April 2024 an unelected cabinet appointed a nine-member Presidential Transition Council to run things, with its mandate expiring on February 7th 2026. The council was supposed to steer Haiti to new elections but instead bickered over which of its members should take charge. Some members have been accused of extorting bribes. Four members were placed under American sanctions for attempting to push out the prime minister, Alix Fils-Aimé, and were accused of having "enabled" Haitian gangs "to destabilise the country".
Mr Fils-Aimé became the country's sole leader after the dissolution of the fractious council. He enjoys the backing of the United States, bolstered by the arrival in June 2025 of Henry Wooster, an American chargé d'affaires who revitalised international efforts against the gangs. As the transition deadline approached, the United States backed Fils-Aimé staying on. On February 3rd 2026 the destroyer USS Stockdale and several Coast Guard cutters arrived in Port-au-Prince bay—an implicit warning to the council. Three council members proposed themselves as joint presidents in defiance of the outsiders, purporting to represent more nationalist factions angered by Fils-Aimé's reliance on foreign powers and wealthy elites in Haiti's private sector.
A Kenyan-led security mission arrived in June 2024 but barely exceeded 1,000 police at its peak and was never well enough funded to quell the violence. In September 2025 the UN authorised a new Gang Suppression Force (GSF) to replace it. Promoted by the United States, the larger, 5,500-strong GSF has a more offensive, military mission, with better equipment, drones and air support. The first reinforcements, mainly from Chad and Sri Lanka, were expected in April 2026.
Only 8% of the UN's $908m humanitarian budget for Haiti has been funded, making it what the UN's secretary-general calls "the least-funded humanitarian appeal in the world".
A gang coalition called Viv Ansanm ("Living Together") has seized control of much of Port-au-Prince. Its most notorious leader is Jimmy Cherizier, known as "Barbecue". The United States put a $5m bounty on his head in August 2025. In May 2025 the United States designated Viv Ansanm and a sister organisation as terrorist groups. The gangs use Starlink satellite systems to communicate and control access to Haiti's ports, extorting lorry drivers and bus operators on main roads. The gangs were also the first to deploy drones in the conflict, using them to track police movements and record aerial footage of their attacks for social media.
The capital's airport, forced by violence to close in November 2024, has reopened for domestic flights, though international passengers must still fly into Port-au-Prince by helicopter from the northern city of Cap-Haïtien. The city's main public hospital is shut. Some 1,600 schools were closed due to violence in 2025; 1.5m children lack access to education.
In 2025 more than 8,100 people were murdered, 20% more than were killed in 2024, according to UN reports. Armed violence has killed some 16,000 Haitians since 2022. The violence has displaced more than 1.4m people and left almost half of the population in need of food support. Central Haiti, once relatively peaceful, is fragmenting into gang fiefs. The city of Mirebalais, between Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic border, is gang-controlled. In January 2026 Médecins Sans Frontières said it was "alarmed and outraged" by soaring numbers of rapes; admissions to its sexual-violence clinic had tripled since 2021 to more than 250 a month.
In March 2025 the government announced an anti-gang task force equipped with surveillance and explosive "kamikaze" drones. A new security task-force made up of the PNH, the GSF and a team of about 120 foreign military contractors working with Vectus Global, an American firm hired by the Haitian government, has launched surprise attacks against the gangs at night. Drone strikes targeting gangsters killed 973 people between March and December 2025; of these 39 were innocent residents, including 16 children, according to the UN. A Human Rights Watch report published on March 10th 2026 said at least 1,243 people had been killed by explosive drones in 141 operations in 2025, including 17 children and at least 43 adults who were reportedly not members of criminal groups.
Human-rights groups have questioned whether the use of explosive drones by law enforcement complies with international law. The prime minister and the transitional council have been accused of selecting drone targets without police input, raising fears of political vendettas—a concern sharpened by long-standing allegations that Haitian politicians have ties to gang leaders.
In January 2026 the police launched a new offensive that has pushed back the gangs in some areas, reopening some roads and allowing displaced people to return home.
Government revenue has fallen to barely 5% of GDP, the lowest in recorded history, according to Gabriel Verret, a Haitian economist. The average across the Caribbean is 20% of GDP. The government spends three-fifths of its scant resources on salaries, leaving little for other running costs or capital spending.
The United States has provided the bulk of security funding, more than $1bn over the last three years. Canada has given $350m since 2022, more than half for training and equipping the police with armoured vehicles. The Organisation of American States has paid for equipment including 90 Kawasaki police bikes, bullet-proof vests, ammunition, boots and socks. The US State Department funds a helicopter medical-evacuation service and a small trauma unit for PNH officers, run by Hero Foundation, an American NGO that is building a 30-bed hospital in Pétion-Ville. The United States once had 400 diplomats in the country; as of early 2026 it has just 20.
Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, visited Haiti in April 2025 to negotiate contracts to provide attack drones and training for an anti-gang task force.
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