Haiti’s capital is close to falling to armed gangs. Here’s what you need to know
Haiti’s capital is again in free fall. The attacks by armed gangs that in recent days have seized control of new neighborhoods is raising fears that metropolitan Port-au-Prince could fall at any moment. In the past month, a record 60,000-plus people have been forced to flee their homes — many finding refuge in soiled makeshift camps with no latrines or potable water, and where rapes are a frequent occurrence. The new displacements have added to the more than 1 million people who had already fled their homes, according to United Nations figures.
2025-03-26 12:46:26 - VI News Staff
Making matters worse, nine in 10 Haitians go all day without eating in what has been described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The gangs have resumed kidnappings, while burning hospitals and destroying schools. The violence also continues to force a ban on U.S. commercial flights at the main international airport. Now, the Trump administration is weighing a travel ban that would restrict Haitians’ access to the United States even if they have a U.S. visa. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security will publish a notice canceling the work permits and immigration protections for more than a half million people, including 211,040 Haitians, paroled into the United States under a Biden-era humanitarian parole program.
Here are some key questions and answers about the unfolding crisis in Haiti.
How bad is the situation?
The cataclysmic situation in Haiti has been described as “an open prison,” where desperate Haitians are cut off from the world by air, land and sea. Internal displacement, the U.N. says, has surged, rising from 330,000 a year ago to over 1 million at present, as Haitians continue to flee gang violence, which led to more than 5,600 deaths last year. Meanwhile, over 100 government offices and other structures have been forced to shut their doors, relocate or have been destroyed. Only 27% of hospitals nationwide are functioning, the U.N. has said. Cholera, tuberculosis and other diseases are also on the rise as individuals are forced to flee.
How much of Haiti’s capital do gangs control?
Gangs control up to 90% of Port-au-Prince, including strategic neighborhoods and roads that make it difficult to get in and out of the capital. The last road out of the capital to access the country’s four regions in the south is now in the hands of gangs, who recently set fire to a police armored vehicle in the area. Several other roads that Haitians were able to use to get to the airport before gangs opened fire on three U.S. jetliners in November are now in gang territory.