Port-au-Prince, 90% Under Gang Rule: A Capital Lost

Haiti’s capital is effectively lost to criminal coalitions that now hold roughly 90% of Port-au-Prince. Whole neighborhoods are sealed off by roadblocks and gunmen; police patrols are sporadic; ordinary life has drained away.

The human toll is stark. More than 3,100 people were killed in the first six months of 2025 after at least 5,600 deaths in 2024. Displacement has surged to about 1.41 million people nationwide as families flee street battles and extortion.

Two-thirds of new uprooting is now occurring outside the capital, especially in Centre and Artibonite—areas once seen as safer. Spontaneous shelter sites have jumped from 142 in December to 238, most of them crowded with women and children.

Health care is collapsing. Doctors Without Borders has shut its Turgeau emergency center after repeated gunfire and stray-bullet strikes, ending a service that treated more than 100,000 patients since 2021.

Over 60% of facilities in the capital are closed or barely functioning, including the General Hospital. Maternal deaths in hospitals have risen from 250 to 350 per 100,000 live births since 2022, and nearly six in ten births in the Ouest department now occur without skilled care.

Haiti’s Collapse and Regional Ripple Effects

Aid groups and the Health Ministry are trying to bring the Isaïe Jeanty maternity hospital back online. Daily survival is the story behind the headlines.

Checkpoints and turf lines choke food and fuel deliveries; ambulances are turned back; markets open late or not at all. Hunger is deepening, with an estimated 5.7 million Haitians facing acute food insecurity, including 1.9 million at emergency levels.

A UN-authorized multinational effort remains under-deployed, and gunfire has been reported even near government buildings.

Why you should know this: Haiti’s unravelling is already reshaping migration routes, crime patterns, and humanitarian needs across the Caribbean and the Americas.

For Brazil and its neighbors, the fallout touches borders, maritime security, anti-trafficking efforts, and diplomacy—while millions of Haitians face a fight for basics that most cities take for granted.

More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

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