Port-au-Prince is no longer a capital. It is now a war zone under the reign of brutal gangs.
Almost four years after Haiti’s president was assassinated in his own bedroom, the country has spiralled into complete collapse.
Heavily armed gangs now control an estimated 90 per cent of the capital city.
The streets are littered with bodies, hospitals are burning, and children are being raped and recruited as soldiers. The state has all but disappeared.
Gangs now wield more power than the government, according to senior United Nations officials, and they rule with unspeakable brutality.
One resident of Port-au-Prince, who chose to remain anonymous for security reasons, told MailOnline: ‘Nothing shocks me anymore. I have seen the worst of the worst.
‘Death is now all around. I have seen more bodies on the streets than I could care for. I have witnessed many people being killed in front of my eyes.
‘We are trapped here and there is nothing we can do. We just have to stay put and pray we are not next.’
The streets of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince are littered with dead bodies after gangs took over
The body of a man is dragged across the street as Haiti contends with a power vacuum now occupied by criminal gangs
Residents watch on as a man lays dead in a pool of blood on the street
He adds: ‘This is hell on earth. You are forced to walk on eggshells and be careful of who you can trust. This is no way for anyone to live.’
This week, the UN reported that more than 3,000 have died in this year alone as a direct result of the gang violence.
He was shot 12 times by foreign mercenaries in what remains an unresolved conspiracy.
Since then, no president has taken office. A string of interim caretakers have since resigned or have been fired. The national police force has been overwhelmed.
The country’s institutions, from courts to customs, power stations to schools have been overrun or abandoned.
Into this vacuum surged the gangs, looking to seize the opportunity. Last week, the UN warned that criminal gangs have now gained control of a majority of the capital.
Led by former police officers, drug traffickers and warlords, Haiti’s gangs have formed brutal alliances.
The bloodbath began after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise
Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier is a former cop who now runs the country’s most powerful gang
Residents told MailOnline that bodies are now left to rot in the streets on a constant basis
The most powerful is the G9 Family and Allies, a federation led by Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier, a former cop turned notorious militia boss.
Chérizier, who styles himself as a revolutionary, has openly declared war on the government and promised to lead a ‘cleansing’ of the elite.
His methods are far from political – they are horrifying.
His men have been filmed burning civilians alive, dragging mutilated bodies through the streets, and beheading police officers with machetes before setting their corpses alight.
Citizens have been forced to witness innocent people getting their throats slit, and women being raped.
Bodies are often left on the street for days as no one dares to move them.
The 400 Mawozo gang, which operates on the city’s outskirts, specialises in ‘express kidnappings’.
They abduct ordinary Haitians for as little as $100 in ransom and sexually assault women in front of their children.
Executions are not just to target enemies – they are also to send a message to those who dare challenge the gangs
People look at the body of a person who was killed by the members of a criminal gang
Dead bodies laying cold in front of homes have become a norm for the frightened citizens of Haiti’s biggest cities
In one infamous attack, they kidnapped 17 missionaries, including several children, and held them for weeks.
The slaughter in Haiti has intensified to shocking levels.
In December 2024, in the Cité Soleil district, gang members slaughtered nearly 200 people, mostly elderly residents accused of being ‘witches.’
Some were shot point-blank and others hacked to death, with their homes set ablaze.
In October, another group, Gran Grif, one of the most violent, stormed the town of Pont-Sondé, killing at least people including infants and pregnant women.
Many were stabbed or burned alive in their homes.
In January 2023, 18 police officers were ambushed and executed by gangs.
Their bodies were dismembered and hung from poles as a message to the state.
The footage circulated on WhatsApp before the government could even respond. The killings sparked riots by police and pro-police gangs in the capital.
Over 1.3million Haitians have been displaced in the last six months alone as many are forced to cross back and forth between the United States and Mexico
The UN has warned about the huge humanitarian crisis happening in the country
Children have been left orphaned while parents have been forced to bury their children since Haiti descended into chaos
The human toll in the ongoing crisis is devastating – over 1.3 million Haitians have been displaced in the past six months. Many now live in makeshift tents without food or clean water.
UNICEF has documented a dramatic increase in sexual violence against girls under 18. While some are sexually exploited by the gangs, others are forced into prostitution.
In some neighbourhoods, girls as young as three have been gang-raped during home invasions, according to local journalists.
I have witnessed many people being killed in front of my eyes. ‘We are trapped here and there is nothing we can do. We just have to stay put and pray we are not next.
Some have gotten pregnant as a result of the rape and since abortion is legalised in the country, many have resorted to unsafe methods to terminate unwanted pregnancies, according to Amnesty International.
Boys as young as 10 are also recruited into gangs and are often used as spies, delivery people, or construction workers.
Others are trained to kill and commit atrocities.
Six in ten hospitals have shut down or are barely functioning.
Gangs routinely loot emergency wards, steal medicine and oxygen cylinders, and murder patients suspected of working with the police.
Messaging platforms are awash with videos of families burned alive in their homes.
Electricity grids have failed, schools have been shuttered, and roads are blocked with burning tyres and corpses. Armed checkpoints demand bribes or blood.
People left bloodied and injured after a group of armed men opened fire on journalists
A man collects the remains of a person killed and left in the streets
People walk past the body of a man shot dead in the morning of March 18, 2024 in Port-au-Prince
Even the international airport was stormed by gangs, forcing it to close on numerous occasions.
Earlier this year, Haitian officials were reduced to using commercial FPV drones to strike back, bombing gang-held streets with explosives dropped from the sky.
To prevent reporting of the full scale of the crisis, several journalists have been killed, kidnapped, or left injured. In 2022, nine reporters were killed.
Many have now been forced to go into hiding. Sources told Mail Online that some have resorted to writing under pseudonyms out of fear they or their families will be targeted.
In December last year, a gruesome picture showed people injured on the floor after a group of armed men opened fire on journalists.
A Kenyan-led peacekeeping mission, approved by the UN, has deployed just 1,000 troops.
That is far short of the 2,500-plus needed. Many countries have been reluctant to send forces, fearing a repeat of the 2004 to 2017 UN occupation, which was marred by abuse and scandal.
Armed men wield guns as they protest against Haiti’s insecurity last month
Bystanders watch on as a group of suspected gang members are burned alive by an angry mob
A woman is comforted after the bodies of a group of people shot dead are removed by an ambulance
Meanwhile, the gangs are growing stronger. With weapons smuggled from Florida and police armouries, they are now better armed than state forces.
Even food has become a weapon. Gangs control fuel depots, supply chains and humanitarian aid routes.
In some areas, residents must pay ‘gang taxes’ through extortion and other abhorrent means.
But there’s also a growing number of civilians who have picked up arms to defend themselves against the gangs.
Their tactics can be just as deadly as the people they are protecting themselves from. It’s either kill or be killed.
With elections pushed to 2026 and the transitional government barely clinging to life, many fear Haiti could become a permanently failed state.
It would be the first in the Western Hemisphere.
If that happens, the humanitarian fallout will be catastrophic. A mass refugee exodus, more mass killings, and a capital city ruled indefinitely by warlords.
A woman clutches a child as she makes her way to safety after gangs set fire to car tyres
In Haiti, it is common for bodies to lay dead in the street for days as no one dares to move them
Paramedics carry the body of a man who was killed by gang members in scenes witnesses say was reminiscent of a violent Hollywood movie
Haiti has been forced to deal with difficulties in the past, from 2010’s devastating earthquake that killed over 2,000 people to Hurricane Matthew in 2016, where it is feared that over 1,000 people lost their lives.
But this is no natural disaster. It has been orchestrated by criminal gangs who now have an iron grip on the nation.
The country is known for its resiliency. But many have now been left questioning whether it can ever bounce back from this.
