Haiti’s Ongoing Struggles with Gang Violence

Gangs Continue to Terrorize Haiti

In the early hours of a Sunday in late July, members of one of Haiti’s largest armed gangs launched a brutal attack on the town of Ganthier, located approximately 25 miles east of the capital. This particular road is notorious for being a pathway used in the illicit smuggling of weapons. The violence escalated when police reinforcements, arriving in armored vehicles hours later, discovered desolation—gang members had vacated the area after vandalizing the local police station and subjecting several residents to horrific acts of torture and murder, as reported by both the town’s mayor and the police.

“The entire town of Ganthier is now deserted; there is no one left,” stated Mayor Jean Vilonor Victor in an interview with The New York Times.

Weeks following the deployment of a United Nations-backed international security force in Haiti, the gangs, which have rendered the capital, Port-au-Prince, and various other regions virtually lawless, show no signs of abating their reign of terror. Despite the international community’s efforts to bolster the Haitian police and support a transitional government, experts suggest that while conditions have improved in some areas of Port-au-Prince, gang activities have merely shifted focus, targeting peripheral towns that had previously evaded their violent campaigns.

The assault on Ganthier, a community of around 60,000 residents situated along a major highway connecting the capital to the Dominican Republic border, exemplifies the ongoing security challenges faced by Haiti’s government. As the nation grapples with the aftermath of three years marked by escalating violence, mass migration, and severe economic deterioration, the road to recovery appears increasingly fraught with peril.