Gang violence in Haiti has displaced nearly 1.3 million people. It's a new record
The number of Haitians forced to flee their homes by terrorizing armed gangs has now hit nearly 1.3 million, the United Nations International Organization for Migration said Wednesday.
The surge is the highest number of people ever displaced by violence in Haiti, and represents a 24% increase since December, according to a recently published Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) report by IOM.
Metropolitan Port-au-Prince remains the epicenter of the violence with residents of the Grand Ravine neighborhood on Tuesday joining the ranks of those forced to flee after gunfire erupted. But the latest numbers also show that the gang violence is spreading to other regions of Haiti and inching close to the 1.5 million left homeless by Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake.
In the North where fresh attacks in the Central Plateau have forced the closure of the country's modern University Hospital of Mirebalais in April and sent a municipal market up in flames this week, the number of people forced from their homes has grown by nearly 80%, IOM said.
'Behind these numbers are so many individual people whose suffering is immeasurable; children, mothers, the elderly, many of them forced to flee their homes multiple times, often with nothing and now living in conditions that are neither safe nor sustainable,' Amy Pope, IOM's director general, said in a statement. 'We need to act urgently. The strength of the Haitian people is humbling, but resilience cannot be their only refuge. This crisis cannot become the new normal.'
READ MORE: As crisis in Haiti worsens, UN council calls meeting to push for international support
The violence is disrupting all facets of Haitian life as businesses go up in flames, neighborhoods get overtaken by criminal gangs and Haitians find themselves without access to basic healthcare, schools and drinking water as members of a powerful gang coalition, Viv Ansanm, shutter hospitals and force refugees into schools and makeshift camps after deadly attacks.
'They kill people, they burn homes, they cut off roads,' said Masillon Jean, who serves as mayor of the Kenscoff community. Jean said with the help of the population, security forces were able to recover some of the areas where armed gangs had taken over such as the center of town, where a school and courthouse have reopened.
But other areas of the community, located in the hills above Pétion-Ville, continue to be in the grip of gangs, particularly the community of Furcy, where a popular hotel, The Lodge, was burned by gangs along with private homes.
Last year, more than 5,600 Haitians died as a result of gang-related violence. This year, the death toll stands at more than 1,600, the U.N. has said. At the same time, the worsening violence is also deepening the humanitarian crisis as more than 5.7 million Haitians struggling to find enough to eat with some facing famine-like conditions.
In the rice-growing Artibonite department, where a well-known pastor and members of his congregation were beheaded last month by a self-defense brigade, there are now more than 92,000 people displaced by violence in the community of Petite Rivière alone.
In the Central Plateau, where gangs set fire to a municipal market on Sunday, attacks in towns like Mirebalais and Saut-d'Eau have more than doubled the number of people on the run in just a few months, rising from around 68,000 to over 147,000 people. The Center Department also now hosts 85 makeshift displacement sites, IOM said, the sharpest increase in such sights whose overall numbers went from 142 in December to 246.
The growing crisis is not only putting an enormous strain on overstretched families, but also on aid agencies, which are facing cuts as Washington pulls back funding to international organizations including the United Nations.
Last week, the regional director for the World Food Program warned that despite the country's record hunger and its vulnerability to hurricanes and other natural disasters, its food stocks are dwindling and warehouses sit empty.
IOM said in the past month the agency y have assisted over 20,000 people with essential household items such as buckets and cooking utensils, distributed over 3 million liters of clean water and provided basic health services to 6,000 people. Additionally, IOM has reinforced its mental health support, reaching over 8,500 displaced people.
But the needs continue to expand, the agency said, issuing an appeal to the international community to scale up support as a humanitarian appeal by the United Nations for $908.6 million for Haiti only garners $75 million so far.
'Without immediate funding and access, millions remain at risk,' the agency said.
Echoing the sentiments of Canada's permanent representative to the U.N., Robert Rae, who is hosting a special discussion on Haiti in New York on Wednesday, IOM stressed that while humanitarian assistance is essential, Haiti needs sustainable solutions to address the root causes of displacement, improve access to essential services and create viable alternatives to gang violence for youth. These measures are critical to breaking the cycle of violence and restoring stability, IOM said.
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Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Haiti's presidential council confirms use of mercenaries in anti-gang fight
The head of Haiti's presidential transition panel acknowledged for the first time the government's use of foreign contractors to help in the fight against armed gangs. But Fritz Alphonse Jean, in an interview he afforded a group of five local Haitian journalists on Friday, declined to provide details on the private security firm including how much Haiti's dysfunctional transitional government is paying for the service and the group's obligations under the contract. The presence of foreign mercenaries in Haiti's anti-gang fight and the lack of transparency around the players, most notably the former head of Blackwater, Erik Prince, and the rules of engagement, have been raising concerns both inside the country and in international circles since the group was first tied to the dropping of weaponized, explosive drones into gangs' strongholds by an equally opaque government task force. 'When there is a weakness, we look for other people to support the national police,' Jean said. 'The money that is being spent, the resources that are being poured in, are that of the population.' Last month, after the government's private security firm deal went public, the Port-au-Prince-based human rights group Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation demanded that authorities inform 'the population about the duration and amount of the contract' and the mercenaries' obligations to limit the collateral damage against innocent civilians. On Friday, while Jean assumed his and the government's role in seeking out international support 'to help the security forces move forward,' he would neither confirm nor deny reports that the government was paying $44 million. 'I cannot answer that question,' he told Radio Kiskeya's Marvel Dandin when he opened the questioning about the contract and reports that the government had employed Blackwater, the controversial private military contractor that was involved in a deadly civilian massacre in Iraq in 2007, in its gang fight. 'Blackwater hasn't existed for a long time, but there is someone who was with Blackwater whom they've seen in Haiti,' Jean said, declining to cite Prince's name or that of his new firm, which is overseeing the dropping of explosive drones by a Haitian government task force. 'What I can assure everyone is with this level of violence compounded by what they call transnational criminality .... it is simply not true that our security forces can confront these challenges alone.' Jean's interview comes at a pivotal time. More than year into its existence, the nine-member Presidential Transitional Council, which is tasked with governing the country and leading it back to democratic order, is consumed by infighting and dysfunction. Their public bickering and lack of cohesion is fueling frustrations and disappointment both inside and out of Haiti at a moment when any solution to the security crisis on the international front appears to be stalled. U.S. officials, outside of saying they cannot keep shouldering the cost of an international armed mission led by Kenya, have yet to say what their policy on Haiti will be and a U.N. Security Council, presented with a proposal by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres back in February, has yet to make a decision. Meanwhile, armed gangs continue to escalate their violence, leading to 1.3 million people now being displaced. Demanding government action after gangs recently took over their town, angry residents in the city of Mirebalais decided to plunge Port-au-Prince into blackout this week by dismantling a transmission tower at the main power plant in central Haiti. The sabotage of the Péligre hydroelectric plant, its second in weeks, is just one action in a list of crises that has Haiti on edge. Jean acknowledged the frustrations and said soon the people will see a scale up in the security response. He did not go into details, but several people close to the government have pointed to the increased use of weaponized drones. Such use has raised concerns both inside and out of the country about the legality of their use and the possible collateral damages. Already, armed gangs have tried to either create their own or purchase them. Three Haitians were recently arrested in the Dominican Republic and turned over to the Haitian police authorities after they were caught trying to purchase drones in the neighboring country, the Haitian police recently confirmed. Weeks earlier, the Miami Herald confirmed that a gang member had died at a hospital after he arrived with over 90% burns after he tried to create his own weaponized drones. Fate of Kenyan-led mission remains unknown Though Haitians only recently learned about the mercenaries' presence after armed gangs began confirming the use of weaponized, kamikaze drones against them, the Herald was informed in February about Prince's presence. He had an initial contract, a source said with the government but didn't sign a more extensive one until last month. State Department officials have said they have no involvement in the company's hiring, though sources with knowledge say given the aversion of U.S. officials in the past to the use of private security firms in the fight, they do not see how Prince's involvement in Haiti could have happened without an OK from Washington. Either way, Prince's arrival on the scene in Haiti coincides with both escalating violence by armed gangs that now control up to 90% of Port-au-Prince while extending to other regions, and ongoing uncertainty about the fate of the armed international security response being led by Kenya. None of the journalists during the hour-and-a-half interview later broadcast by Jean's team asked about the Multinational Security Support mission. Wednesday will mark a year since the first contingent of about 200 Kenyan police officers first arrived in Haiti, and according to Kenyan authorities are due to be rotated out. What is unclear is whether the Kenyan police will be replaced. At issue is the U.S.-built military base where the approximately 1,000 members of the MSS are housed, and whether Washington will continue funding its operations. The U.S. had a deadline of this month for informing the contractor whether they will extend operations until at least March of next year. Neither the State Department, Pentagon nor MSS has responded to Herald inquiries about whether the payment, reportedly $200 million for six months, was made. Jeans pushes back on reports about 'unjustified privileges' Jean, a U.S.-educated economist and former head of Haiti's Central Bank, assumed the helm of the presidential council in March as part of the rotation presidency. He is due to be replaced in August by Laurent Saint-Cyr, who represents the private sector. Behind the scenes, the group has been engaged in a political battle over the strong possibility that the panel's mandate will come to an end without them realizing their primary mission: a newly elected president in office on Feb. 7, 2026, or a new constitution. A report by the National Human Rights Defense Network on the panel's one-year anniversary back in April, accused the transition of failing to fulfill any of its commitments regarding governance, 'systematically draining the state's coffers,' by among other things, appointing members to positions without regard for their qualifications, and receiving 'unjustified privileges.' The report cited at least 15 foreign trips by council members and government officials. In addition to noting the unresolved bank bribery corruption scandal involving three of the council's members, who continue to assert their innocence, the human rights report said there have been at least 13 massacres and armed attacks recorded in Haiti since the council was installed on April 25, 2024. 'The human and material losses recorded during these episodes of violence are immense,' the report said, noting that 4,405 people were murdered between April 2024 and March 2025 including 805 people the first three months of this year. The reporting period also saw at least 3,792 women and girls who were victims of sexual and gender-based violence, according to the combined data from the National Human Rights Defense Network and the feminine organizations, Nègès Mawon and the Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn, SOFA; and the deaths of 31 Haiti National Police officers, eight soldiers from the Haitian Armed Forces, and two agents of the Multinational Security Support Mission. The period also saw the deaths of two journalists after armed gangs opened on them ahead of a government press conference, and multiple attacks against media companies. Jean didn't address the report directly, but said reports about members' privileges were a manipulation of figures. 'Since we are in a political campaign, they are utilizing this file as, what the Americans call, a 'smear campaign,' ' he said, without providing precision on the actual figures each of the nine presidential-counters are drawing. He also dismissed assertions that since the council has come into power, more territories have been lost to gangs. When challenged by Frantz Duval, the editor of the Nouvelliste, on his assessment that there was no political will to combat gangs before November, he doubled down despite his reading contradicting that of others, including foreign diplomats. They have repeatedly credited Haiti's national police force with preventing Port-au-Prince and the government from collapsing in March of 2024 when the country's most powerful gangs joined forces under the Viv Ansanm banner and carried out coordinated attacks across the capital in order to bring down the government. 'Everyone has to admit there are serious operations that the police is carrying out,' he said. 'They are fighting in Mirebalais, they are fighting in Kenscoff, they are in Delmas 30.'
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
Former mayor from Haiti sentenced to nine years for visa fraud
During Friday's sentencing, Viliena's attorney, Jason Benzaken, maintained his client's innocence and asked for leniency because it was his first criminal conviction. Benzaken did not respond to a request for comment Friday night. Until his arrest two years ago, Viliena had Advertisement 'Today's sentence brings a measure of justice for the lives he shattered and sends a clear message: the United States will not be a safe haven for human rights abusers.' Viliena was also Advertisement Viliena served as mayor of Les Irois from December 2006 until at least February 2010, Foley's office said. Prosecutors detailed a pattern of violence and intimidation linked to his time in office during the two-week trial that led to his conviction. Both during his campaign and tenure, Viliena committed numerous violent acts backed by Korega, a hardline political faction notorious for attacking journalists, activists, and opponents, the statement said. In 2007, Viliena allegedly led a mob targeting David Boniface, a witness who testified against him. When they found only Boniface's younger brother, Eclesiaste, at home, Viliena and his men shot and killed him. One attacker 'smashed his skull with a large rock before a crowd of bystanders,' the statement said. In 2008, when local activists and journalists launched a community radio station, Viliena and his allies forcibly shut it down. He armed Korega members—some carrying machetes and picks—and personally led the attack, according to the statement. Viliena pistol-whipped and punched one victim, Nissage Martyr, and when Martyr tried to flee, ordered an associate to shoot him. Martyr was hit in the leg and later had it amputated above the knee. Another victim, Juders Ysemé, was shot in the face and left permanently blind in one eye, according to Foley's office. In 2009, as Haitian investigators probed these actions, Viliena fled to Malden on a legal visa. After being indicted in Haiti in 2010, he skipped trial, and no in absentia proceedings occurred, according to a Advertisement Boniface, Martyr, and Ysemé filed the civil suit in 2017 under the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows victims to seek justice in U.S. courts when denied in their home countries, Foley's office said. Both Boniface and Ysemé testified at Viliena's criminal trial as well. Boniface broke down on the stand when shown a photo of his brother's bloodied body. 'This is the picture of my brother who Jean Morose and his group assassinated,' he said, speaking in Haitian Creole, the Globe On Friday, Viliena's attorney argued for a lighter sentence for his client. 'Mr. Viliena has never been convicted of a crime and therefore this is his first incarceration,' said Benzaken. 'It has been a jarring and destabilizing experience for him, and 33 months of imprisonment is significantly impactful to him.' The court rejected those arguments. In addition to the nine-year prison term, Viliena was sentenced to three years of supervised release and faces deportation proceedings upon completion of his sentence, according to Foley's office. Rita Chandler can be reached at
a day ago
Former mayor from Haiti gets prison time for lying to get into the US
CONCORD, N.H. -- CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A former mayor from Haiti convicted of lying about his violent past on his visa application was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison and three years of supervision, after which he will be subject to deportation proceedings. Jean Morose Viliena, of Malden, Massachusetts, was the mayor of Les Irois, Haiti, from December 2006 until February 2010. He was convicted of three counts of visa fraud in March and sentenced Friday in federal court in Boston. 'For more than a decade, he lived freely and comfortable in this country while the victims of his brutality lived in fear, exile and pain,' U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in statement. 'Today's sentence brings a measure of justice for the lives he shattered and sends a clear message: the United States will not be a safe have for human rights abusers.' According to prosecutors, Viliena committed 'violent atrocities' against his political foes in an isolated, rural community of about 22,000 residents on Haiti's western tip. In 2007, he was accused of leading a group of his allies to the home of a political opponent, where he and his associates shot and killed the opponent's younger brother, then smashed his skull with a rock. In 2008, Viliena and his allies went armed with guns, machetes, picks and sledgehammers to shut down a community radio station that he opposed, prosecutors said. Authorities said he pistol-whipped and punched a man and ordered an associate to shoot and kill the man and another person. Both survived, but one of the men lost a leg and the other was blinded in one eye. When he applied for a visa to enter the U.S., however, Viliena denied having 'ordered, carried out or materially assisted in extrajudicial and political killings and other acts of violence against the Haitian people.' He later received a permanent resident card and has raised a child who is a U.S. citizen by birth, prosecutors said. Defense attorneys argued in court that it was members of a rival political party — including some who they say are government witnesses — who committed the violence. They described the former mayor as the son of a farmer who became a teacher and eventually ran for mayor to improve conditions in town. In 2023, Viliena was found liable by an American jury in a civil trial
