The security situation in Haiti is in “free fall”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned, as armed groups continue to unleash deadly violence in the capital and other areas across the Caribbean nation.
In a statement on Thursday, HRW said criminal gangs have escalated their attacks in Port-au-Prince since late 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 horrific abuses,” said Nathalye Cotrino, the rights group’s senior Americas researcher.
The country has reeled from years of violence as powerful armed groups, often with ties to the country’s political and business leaders, have vied for influence and control of territory.
But the situation worsened dramatically after the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, which created a power vacuum.
In 2024, the gangs launched attacks on prisons and other state institutions across Port-au-Prince, fuelling a renewed political crisis.
The campaign of violence led to the resignation of Haiti’s unelected prime minister, the creation of a transitional presidential council, and the deployment of a United Nations-backed, multinational police mission.
That Kenya-led police force – formally known as the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) – has failed to take control back from the gangs, however. Observers say the mission has been underfunded and ill-equipped.
Recently, so-called “self-defence” groups have formed in response to the armed gangs, leading to more deadly violence.
Protests have also broken out in Port-au-Prince against the country’s transitional presidential council, which has been unable to restore security. On April 7, the authorities declared a new, one-month state of emergency amid the violence.
“Declaring emergencies without equipping police with necessary resources, like effective armored vehicles, will not solve the insecurity crisis,” the National Human Rights Defense Network, a leading Haitian rights group, said in a recent report.
“The absence of state response has turned the police into firefighters—constantly reacting without strategic direction—while towns fall one after another,” the group said.
‘Why is no one helping us?’
According to UN figures, at least 1,518 people were killed and another 572 were injured between January 1 and March 27 in gang attacks, security force operations, and acts of violence committed by the “self-defence” groups and others.
Speaking to HRW, an aid worker in Haiti said people “no longer have a safe place” to go.
“Women … seeking help have not only lost loved ones, but have also been raped, displaced and left on the streets, starving and struggling to survive. We don’t know how much longer they can endure such suffering,” the aid worker said.
“All [victims] ask is for the violence to stop. With no support from the police or government, they feel abandoned. They ask, ‘Why is no one helping us? Why do Haitian lives not matter if we are human too?’”
The UN also says more than 1 million Haitians have been displaced by the violence, while half of the country – some 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,” the group’s Haiti country director, Chantal Sylvie Imbeault, said in a statement.
“They are living in deadly areas controlled by armed groups, being robbed of a normal childhood, and at constant risk of recruitment—while humanitarian aid struggles to reach them,” she said.
“As displacement continues to soar, shelters are becoming completely overcrowded, leaving children vulnerable to disease, exploitation, and sexual violence.”