Haiti's Gang Crisis

What it is

Haiti's gang crisis describes the near-total collapse of state authority in Haiti, driven by armed criminal coalitions that now control the majority of Port-au-Prince and have extended into the Artibonite, Centre, and Northwest departments. The dominant force is Viv Ansanm, a Haitian Creole phrase meaning "Living Together," formed in February 2024 when the G9 Family and Allies federation merged with the rival G-PEP alliance. Viv Ansanm is led by Jimmy Chérizier, a former police officer known as "Barbecue," and was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department in April 2025. Gran Grif, a separate and independent gang based in Savien in the Artibonite commune of Petite-Rivière-de-l'Artibonite, is Haiti's largest criminal organization outside the capital and received the same US designation simultaneously. Analysts estimate Viv Ansanm collectively has between 12,000 and 20,000 members, with roughly 3,000 heavily armed fighters.

History

Haiti's armed group problem has deep roots in political patronage networks from the Duvalier era, but the current crisis accelerated sharply after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Without elected officials, interim governments informally tolerated armed groups in exchange for order in certain neighborhoods, a dependency that allowed gangs to expand territorially. In February 2024, Viv Ansanm coordinated a large-scale offensive that destroyed the Croix-des-Bouquets and Numéro 1 prisons, freeing approximately 4,000 detainees, and seized key roads into Port-au-Prince. The offensive forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was in Nairobi seeking security assistance, to announce his resignation in March 2024. Gran Grif attacked the Artibonite town of Pont-Sondé in October 2024, killing 115 people in one of the deadliest single incidents of the crisis. In December 2024, gang-ordered attacks in Cité Soleil killed approximately 180 people, most of them elderly residents.

Current state

As of mid-2026, Viv Ansanm controls approximately 80 to 90% of metropolitan Port-au-Prince, having expanded from peripheral zones into the downtown core and middle-class neighborhoods such as Pétion-Ville. Gangs have shifted from indiscriminate violence toward systematic extortion, collecting tolls at checkpoints and operating parallel governance structures, including informal taxation and dispute resolution, in areas under their control. Human Rights Watch documented at least 4,384 killings in Haiti from January through September 2025; the UN recorded 2,300 further killings in the first half of 2026. At least 1.4 million Haitians were internally displaced as of September 2025, nearly half of them children. The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, authorized by Security Council Resolution 2793 in October 2025 as a successor to the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, launched first operations in June 2026 but had deployed only around 1,000 of its 5,500 authorized personnel by that date.

Relationships

Viv Ansanm emerged from two historically rival factions whose merger was driven by the common interest of countering international security intervention. Gran Grif operates independently in the Artibonite, Haiti's agricultural heartland, and is not subordinate to Viv Ansanm command. Haiti's interim government, led by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as of early 2026, exercises authority over a diminishing share of national territory and has no functioning national legislature. The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, closed its border on multiple occasions in 2024 and 2025 in response to gang expansions near the northern crossing points, and has deported tens of thousands of Haitians. Kenya deployed the first contingent of the international security mission in 2024 and commands the relabelled Gang Suppression Force; Chad pledged 750 additional troops.

What to watch

• Whether the Gang Suppression Force reaches sufficient troop strength to sustain clearing operations and hold liberated areas of Port-au-Prince.
• Internal cohesion of Viv Ansanm: the coalition's merger was opportunistic and may fracture under sustained military pressure or competition over extortion revenues.
• Gang expansion toward Dominican Republic border crossing points and into southern departments not yet under sustained gang control.
• Haiti's political transition timeline: whether presidential and legislative elections can be organized, and whether an elected government can rebuild a functional national police.