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And their aim is complete domination.
She escaped here with her husband Ronald, their daughters, and her 79-year-old grandmother last October when heavily armed attackers overran Solino, their neighborhood. Their well-built home with security measures was no match for the onslaught of Kalashnikov rifles and Molotov cocktails, recounts Ronald, a carpenter.
Over a million Haitians have been uprooted by gang violence, seeking refuge in temporary shelters. This includes Francoise and Ronald’s family, who fled with their daughters and grandmother. Source: SBS
The home and Ronald’s tools destroyed, the family has set up shelter in the makeshift camp. The girls’ private school uniforms hang from a rope — neat and impeccably clean. But each day I visit, school has been cancelled due to danger.
Thousands killed, over a million displaced
The numbers are staggering and getting worse. More than a million Haitians have been displaced by gang violence, which killed more than 5,000 people last year. Another 1,600 died in this year’s first quarter, says the United Nations.
Gangs control 85 per cent of Port-au-Prince, and many neighbourhoods have turned into war zones, forcing ordinary citizens to flee for their safety. Source: SBS
The international airport in Port-au-Prince has been closed to commercial flights for months, after the gangs shot at passenger jets, while the roads into the city are controlled by the gangs.
In 2024, this helicopter was twice shot at by gangs.
‘I want to resolve the problem’
“Donald Trump is a patriot; he loves his country,” he says. “We must show that we are patriots and nationalists and do what’s right for our country. I think we have something in common.”
Cherizier, a former police officer himself, has been sanctioned by the UN for serious human rights abuses. He blames Haitian police and politicians for the crisis. Source: SBS
Cherizier — who has been sanctioned by the UN for serious human rights abuses — contends that it is corrupt police, corrupt politicians and the wealthy who are to blame for Haiti’s crisis.
“Me, I want to resolve the problem. I want to resolve the problem in a serious way but the people who are in power don’t want to resolve the problem. Me, all I want is for peace.”
“[Cherizier] killed people and burned houses, hospitals and churches … they are terrorists,” he tells me.
Prue Lewarne interviews Cherizier in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Source: SBS
At his offices, I’m introduced to a woman who tells me how her husband was killed by the gangs.
She tells me her daughter was raped by gang members and now lives in daily pain.
An almost-impossible fight
There has been some support for Haiti from overseas. In 2024, a UN-backed Multinational Security Support Mission led by Kenya sent its first police officers to Port-au-Prince to help the Haitian government restore law and order.
Cherizier likens himself to US President Donald Trump, saying he, too, wants to “drain the swamp”. The US has recently designated Cherizier’s gang alliance Viv Ansanm as a terrorist organisation. Source: SBS
The original target was 2,500 officers, but there are only 1,000 of them.
“For strategic reasons, I can’t answer that question,” he says with a laugh.
Viv Ansanm retaliated with further attacks.
Longing for normal life
“The gangsters? They are assassins, criminals — there is no dialogue with them,” he says.
More than half of all Haitians are facing acute food insecurity, with over two million people projected to face emergency level hunger by June 2025, according to the World Food Programme.
More than half of all Haitians are facing hunger, according to UN’s World Food Programme. Source: SBS
And no one I met in Haiti had any confidence that the Kenyan-led mission would help.
