When Governance Fails: Child Recruitment, Gendered Violence, and the Rise of Gang Rule in Haiti

Author: Elizabeth Lyons

December 11, 2025

Dèyè mòn gen mòn 

Beyond mountains, there are mountains 

– Haitian proverb

Warning: This article contains accounts of rape and other violence that readers may find distressing.

In a shelter for underage survivors of gender-based violence, non-governmental organizations have reported a rise in cases of sexual violence, particularly rape of women and minors, due to the escalating armed violence. Care and support facilities for survivors are overwhelmed, lacking the necessary space and funding to meet the growing needs. [Image credit: OCHA/Veronique Durroux]

Armed groups now control an estimated 85-90% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, leaving many civilians without reliable state protection or functioning public services. As authority collapses, families fleeing from violence face new dangers: children are abducted, recruited, or displaced amid the chaos. Schools and churches—once places of safety—now serve as makeshift shelters, while armed checkpoints frequently block humanitarian access and isolate entire communities. According to the United Nations, the number of displaced children has nearly doubled in the past year to 680,000, a staggering figure that illustrates how gang rule has replaced official governance across much of the country. In many districts, violence has become the only functioning form of order. Within this system, sexual violence in particular has become a deliberate weapon of control, used by gangs to claim territory and assert dominance. Haiti’s escalating gang warfare has ballooned into a nationwide human rights catastrophe, where women and children bear the greatest burden. The systematic use of sexual violence, child recruitment, and forced displacement exposes the crumbling of effective state protection and the international community’s failure to act. Haiti’s current humanitarian catastrophe reflects a complete collapse of protection by national institutions and the international community that has left civilians trapped between predatory gangs and absent governance. 

However, today’s violence, while rooted in immediate political failures, reflects the long shadow of a global system that has historically extracted from and abandoned Haiti for centuries.  As the world’s first Black republic, Haiti was punished for its independence through crippling colonial debts and repeated foreign occupations that hollowed out governance and entrenched inequality. Today’s humanitarian disaster is thus inseparable from this longer history of external actors shaping Haiti’s trajectory while evading accountability for its consequences— a context that has allowed today’s violence to spread with such devastating force. 

The Spread of Violence

What began as localized turf wars in Port-au-Prince has evolved into a nationwide armed conflict. Initially driven by competition for territory, smuggling routes, and political patronage, these disputes have expanded into sustained campaigns of violence that touch nearly every region of the country. Each month brings new offensives, mass killings, and displacement in areas once considered safe. 

In late 2024, the Wharf Jeremie Gang carried out the Cité Soleil Massacre, killing 207 people, many of them elderly Haitians. This attack was not random. Local reports indicate that the gang’s leader blamed Vodou practitioners for his son's death, accusing them of using spiritual practices against him. What began as a personal act of vengeance escalated into a campaign of retribution against entire communities. The deliberate targeting of Vodou practitioners reflects how violence has shifted from competition over territory to a tool for enforcing social control and suppressing cultural identity. 

Around the same period in 2024, but outside the capital, the Gran Grif Gang killed at least 115 people in Artibonite in a raid. Residents described hours of gunfire, fires spreading through homes, and entire families killed as they tried to flee. No police arrived to intervene. The attack underscored how state institutions have effectively vanished from many regions, leaving civilians defenseless and gangs free to operate without consequence. Taken together, these coordinated attacks reveal a new stage in Haiti’s collapse: one where gang alliances coordinate across rural and urban zones, linking their operations through fear, extortion, and control of vital resources such as trade routes and fuel supplies. The most prominent of these collations, the G9, frames itself as a revolutionary movement defending Haiti’s poor against government corruption and neglect. While this rhetoric echoes Haiti’s own revolutionary identity, in practice, the group has consolidated power through extortion, violence, and control of essential infrastructure.

In 2025, violence across several neighborhoods of Carrefour left 262 dead over a span of 2 months, according to UN reports. As shown in Figure 1, between January and June 2025 alone, clashes involving gangs, self-defense groups, and the Haitian National Police killed 3,136 people and injured 1,189 more (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Persons injured and killed by perpetrator and/or context January - June 2025

[Source: United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH, 2025)]

The violence has not stopped at homes and streets; it has also spread to other civilian institutions such as schools, churches, and displacement sites that previously offered refuge. Armed groups attacked State University Hospital, Bernard Mevs Hospital, and a Doctors Without Borders emergency center, forcing the latter two to close. In February 2024, armed groups destroyed 47 schools in Haiti’s capital, disrupting thousands of children’s education. Even wealthy neighborhoods, long considered insulated by their elite status, have come under fire. The United Nations Office on Human Rights has reported that gangs are expanding along major roads in the Centre and Artibonite departments, seeking to control routes that connect the north to the Dominican border. By taxing traders and blocking humanitarian convoys, armed groups have taken on the role of regulating population movement, a role that once belonged to the state. What has emerged is not pure anarchy but a chaotic quasi-state: a patchwork of territories ruled by competing armed groups that mimic governance while deepening its collapse. In this fragmented system, territorial dominance has become a form of governance in its own right, blurring the line between political authority and organized crime. 

This violent order is unsustainable. As hospitals shut down and essential services collapse, civilians find themselves with nowhere to turn for food, medicine, or protection. In this vacuum of governance, gangs determine who eats, who moves, and who survives. Children, in particular, have become both the targets and the tools for this new order. 

Children in Peril

Armed groups now recruit children at unprecedented rates, pulling minors into combat and criminal work, with assignments determined by age and gender. Recruitment of minors has surged to roughly 70%, exposing the collapse of child-protection systems and the desperation gripping many communities. Gangs trap children in cycles of coercion and survival, exploiting the very poverty and fear they create. Some recruits are as young as eight, and now, children make up half of all gang members. The UN reports that “8 to 10-year-olds are 'used as messengers or informants,’ while younger girls are tasked with domestic chores” and/or endure sexual abuse. As armed groups destroy schools, the absence of education becomes a salient point for exploitation – a child out of school is a child at risk. For many, recruitment is less a choice than a means of survival. 

In a country where 59% live on less than USD $2 per day, and 24.7%  are in extreme poverty, gang involvement often provides the only consistent income. According to the Associated Press, one minor reported earning $33 every Saturday, with others receiving even more. Poverty, fear, and the absence of state protection leave children with impossible choices. Those who refuse recruitment face threats, abduction, or violence against their families; while those who escape are often branded as spies or killed. 

Amnesty International recorded similar testimonies, including that of a 12-year-old boy, who said, “If I didn’t [join], they would have killed me.” His words capture the coercive logic of Haiti’s conflict, where survival itself demands submission to violence. In this vacuum of protection, gangs present themselves as the only source of safety, even as they inflict the very violence they claim to prevent. They have turned dependency into power, trapping children in a system that feeds on their vulnerability. In addition, the same structures that exploit children also sustain a broader pattern of gender-based violence—another instrument of control that has become a defining feature of the conflict. 

Gendered Violence and Control

Gender-based violence (GBV) in Haiti is escalating, driven by entrenched gender inequalities and systemic impunity. Reliable data on these experiences remain limited, and existing reports primarily document the experiences of women and girls, though men, boys, and gender-diverse people are also affected in ways that often go unrecorded. Accordingly, this section reflects the data currently available. 

Sexual violence, in particular, has become a deliberate instrument of intimidation, punishment, and control. UNICEF reports a 1,000% increase in sexual violence involving children from 2023 to 2024, underscoring the magnitude of the crisis. At the same time, pregnant people are increasingly unable to access maternity care as hospitals close under fire. Haiti’s total ban on abortion further compounds these dangers, forcing many to attempt unsafe “at-home” procedures. The absence of reproductive autonomy has long been a form of violence that denies agency and compounds physical trauma with social and psychological harm.  

Historically, sexual violence in Haiti has served political and social functions. Under President Jovenel Moise’s administration, state-linked gangs reportedly used rape and assault to repress dissent in neighborhoods critical of the government. As power fragmented after Moise’s assassination in 2021, these tactics persisted but in new forms: gangs began to employ GBV as a “spoil of war,” using it to humiliate rival groups, assert dominance over seized territory, and profit through extortion. An aid worker interviewed by Human Rights Watch described the normalization of this brutality: “They rape because they have the power. Sometimes they do it for days or weeks.” This shift marks a transition from politically-motivated attacks to the systematic use of sexual violence as a mechanism of control. In the absence of functioning institutions, sexual violence now serves as a method of social control, allowing armed groups to maintain power through fear and the destruction of communal trust. In many cases, survivors do not know their assailants or the groups they belong to, and anonymity magnifies the fear, turning each assault into a warning for the wider community. In others, the perpetrators are known members of local gangs, a reminder that these crimes are not hidden but instead flaunted in plain sight. 

Determining the full scale of GBV remains nearly impossible, hindered by gang control, the collapse of governmental institutions, and the stigma surrounding sexual violence. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies or CSIS, the evidence reveals a clear pattern: rates of gender based violence rise sharply in areas where gang activity is concentrated. Widespread impunity and the easy flow of imported weapons enable these abuses. Victims, often traumatized and stigmatized, lack the financial means to relocate, forcing many to remain trapped in neighborhoods controlled by the gangs that assaulted them. Human Rights Watch recorded testimonies illustrating this brutality. One woman told investigators that she was “raped by four men… while looking for water for her children.” She identified them as members of the G-Pep criminal group, adding, “They didn’t use to do this, but now they do whatever they want… I couldn’t go to the doctor. I didn’t have money.” Her account reflects how sexual violence has become a routine expression of control and a complete breakdown of protection and justice.  In this way, sexual violence is a weapon and a structure, destroying lives while reinforcing dependency and fear that make escape nearly impossible. 

Impunity and the Absence of Justice

These cycles persist due to the collapse of Haiti’s justice system, leaving perpetrators unpunished and survivors without recourse. Haiti’s police and courts are absent or complicit, making impunity a symptom and driver of the crisis. Several government counselors were charged with bribery and corruption involving the government-owned National Bank of Credit, underscoring how criminality now runs through the institutions meant to prevent it. Le Monde reports that “gangs have driven the magistrates out of their courts,” leaving numerous cases unresolved in the Bicentennaire district. 

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index scores Haiti at 16/100, among the lowest in the world. The score reflects extreme levels of public-sector corruption, ranging from bribery and embezzlement to the misuse of public funds and the absence of institutional safeguards. The Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Conflict Tracker highlights how Haiti’s weak political institutions have facilitated lawlessness. Police are underpaid, justice officials are threatened or bought off, and survivors rarely see their cases investigated. Without credible law enforcement or a functioning judiciary, perpetrators operate with complete impunity, reinforcing a feedback loop of domination that sustains Haiti’s humanitarian catastrophe.

Yet Haiti’s crisis cannot be understood solely through the failure of its institutions. It is also shaped by the racial hierarchies and structural inequalities that have long defined the country’s relationship with the international community. From the indemnity demanded by France after independence to modern international politics that have undermined sovereignty, foreign actors have repeatedly extracted from Haiti while denying it the means to rebuild. A genuine path forward must center Haitian voices, especially women and grassroots leaders, and resist the repetition of externally imposed “sanctions” that disregard local agency. 

The Urgency of Protection

Haiti’s crisis is simultaneously a security, humanitarian, and moral emergency. The widespread targeting of women and children underscores how the absence of protection is as devastating as the violence itself. To date, international engagement has largely prioritized security operations and anti-gang missions, while humanitarian access, justice, and social protection have lagged far behind. The international community should not treat this as a security issue alone. Protection and accountability must be at the center of every response.

Yet even amid collapse, Haitian-led organizations continue to sustain their communities under impossible conditions. Groups such as Solidarité Fanm Ayisyèn (SOFA), the Haitian Women’s Collective, youth networks, and local foundations like FOKAL attempt to provide food, education, and mediation where the state cannot. Their endurance is proof that protection already exists in Haiti. What they need is support, not replacement. International actors should fund and partner with these networks directly, ensuring that aid aligns with local realities, strengthens existing systems of care, and restores dignity to those already leading the response from within.

At the same time, international engagement must go beyond short-term relief. Strengthening humanitarian corridors to guarantee access to food, medical care, and education is essential. Expanding child protection systems through schooling, psychosocial support, and safe shelter are critical to breaking cycles of coercion and recruitment. Women’s organizations operating on the ground need sustained funding and international partnerships to ensure an effective response to gender-based violence. Investing in these capacities will build more sustainable forms of safety than any temporary security mission could provide. 

Lasting peace requires confronting the legacies that made this collapse possible: the corruption, inequality, and racialized neglect that have shaped Haiti’s modern history. Protection cannot just mean militarization, and accountability cannot come from the outside alone. Haiti’s future depends on rebuilding a non-criminal, non-corrupt order rooted in human rights and mutual trust. Protecting Haiti’s most vulnerable is not charity; it is justice. The world owes Haiti more than sympathy or spare change: it owes recognition, partnership, and accountability. Only through reckoning can peace take root. 

Piti piti zwazo fé nich li 

Little by little, the bird builds its nest.  

– Haitian proverb

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Glossary

• Child Recruitment: The use of any person below 18 years of age by armed groups in any role, including as fighters, messengers, cooks, spies, or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities. 

• Colonial Indemnity: The debt Haiti was forced to pay France after independence in 1804, draining resources and reinforcing racialized inequality for over a century. 

• Corruption Perceptions Index: A yearly ranking by Transparency International measuring how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be (0 = most corrupt, 100 = cleanest).  

• Departments: A department in Haiti is the country’s highest-level administrative division, similar to a state or province, used for regional governance and public administration. Haiti has 10 departments, each overseeing local arrondissements and communes.

  

  [Source: Organization of American States (OAS, 2015)]

• Forced Displacement: When people are forced to flee their homes because of conflict, violence, or disaster. 

• Gender-Based Violence (GBV): Any harmful act directed at someone based on gender or perceived gender, including sexual, physical, psychological, and economic violence. 

• G-Pep: A rival criminal alliance to G9 active in Port-au-Prince and led by Jean Pierre Gabriel (Ti Gabriel).  

• G9: A coalition of gangs in Port-au-Prince, led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, that controls the largest part of the capital. 

• Humanitarian Corridor: A safe route established to allow civilians and aid to pass through conflict areas.  

• Impunity: The absence or failure of accountability in practice, where individuals commit abuses without facing consequences, whether or not formal legal protections exist. 

• Indemnity: Formal protection from liability, often granted through laws, decrees, or political agreements that shield individuals (such as officials or security forces) from prosecution. 

• Jovenel Moise: Haiti’s president from 2017 to 2021, whose assassination deepened the country’s political instability.  

• Reproductive Autonomy: The right to make free decisions about reproduction, including access to contraception, pregnancy care, abortion, and maternal care.  

• Sanctions: Penalties imposed by one or more countries to influence the behavior of another state, organization, or individual, typically by restricting economic activity, freezing assets, or limiting travel and financial access. 

• Sexual Violence: Any sexual act or threat carried out by force or coercion; a form of GBV.  It encompasses a wide range of behaviors from sexual harassment to rape.

• Shadow Governance / Quasi-State: A system in which armed groups perform state-like functions, such as taxation, policing, or control of movement, without legitimacy or accountability. 

• SOFA (Solidarité Fanm Ayisyèn): A Haitian women’s organization providing legal aid, education, and advocacy for survivors of GBV. 

• Sovereignty: A state’s authority to govern itself by making laws, controlling territory, and managing internal affairs without interference from external actors. 

• Vodou Practitioners: Followers of Vodou, a syncretic faith blending African spiritual traditions with Catholic and Indigenous elements.