The security situation in Haiti is in “Free Fall”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned, since armed groups continue to unleash deadly violence in the capital and other areas of the Caribbean nation.
In a statement on Thursday, HRW said that criminal gangs have intensified their attacks in Prince Port-Au since the end of last year, and only 10 percent of the city remains under government control.
“Haiti’s security situation is in a free fall and Haitians are suffering horrible abuses,” Nathalia Cotrino, a researcher at the Americas of the Americas of the Rights Group, said.
The country has recovered years of violence as powerful armed groups, with links with the country’s political and business leaders, have competed for the influence and control of the territory.
But the situation worsened dramatically after the murder of July 2021 of President Haitian Jovenel Moise, who created a power vacuum.
In 2024, gangs launched attacks against prisons and other state institutions throughout Prince Port-Au, feeding a renewed political crisis.
The violence campaign led to the renunciation of the unded prime minister of Haiti, the creation of a Presidential Transition Council and the deployment of a multinational police mission supported by the United Nations.
However, that the police force of the police directed by Kenya known as the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), could not recover the control of the gangs. Observers say that the mission has been sub -financed and poorly equipped.
Recently, the so -called “self -defense” groups have formed in response to armed gangs, which leads to more mortal violence.
The protests have also exploded in Port -au -Prince against the Country Presidential Council, which has not been able to restore security. On April 7, the authorities declared a new state of emergency of one month in the midst of violence.
“Declare emergencies without equipping the police with the necessary resources, such as effective armored vehicles, will not resolve the crisis of insecurity,” he said in a recent report of the National Human Rights Defense Network, a leader of Haitian rights.
“The absence of state response has turned the police into firefighters, constantly reacting without strategic direction, while cities fall one after another,” said the group.
“Why is nobody helping us?”
According to the UN figures, at least 1,518 people were killed and another 572 were killed between January 1 and March 27 in attacks, security force operations and violence acts committed by “self -defense” and others groups.
Speaking to HRW, an aid worker in Haiti said people “no longer have a safe place.”
“Women … Review help has not only been loved ones, but have also been raped, displaced and left in the streets, looking and struggling to survive. We do not know how much more time can support that suffering,” said the help worker.
“All [victims] Ask is that violence stops. Without police or government support, they feel abandoned. They ask: ‘Why is nobody helping us? Why does Haitian life matter if we are human too? “
The UN, as it says, more than 1 million Haitians have been displaced by violence, while half of the country, about 5.5 million people, face acute food insecurity.
In early April, Save The Children reported that more than 40,000 children were among those displaced in the first three months of 2025.
“Children in Haiti are trapped in a nightmare,” said the group director of the group, Chantal Sylvie Imbault.
“They live in mortal areas controlled by armed, stolen or normal groups, and with constant risk of recruitment, while humanitarian aid struggles to achieve them,” he said.
“As the displacement continues to increase, shelters are becoming completely overcrowded, leaving children vulnerable to disease, exploitation and sexual violence.”
