U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres toured Port-au-Prince on Tuesday as Haiti’s gang violence escalates, leaving more than 1 in 10 people homeless. New U.N. figures show 2,300 killed and 1.5 million displaced this year, while residents describe life in cro
Port-au-Prince felt like a country running out of options.
On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres moved through neighborhoods scarred by gang control and fought past the wreckage of last weekend’s violence, including the aftermath of more than 30 people being killed, injured or missing in Cité Soleil, a seaside slum.
Along the way. he passed residents who had fled clashes and now live in makeshift homes under canvas stretched with frayed rope. In statistics released by the United Nations. Haiti’s displacement crisis is already vast: 1.5 million people displaced. 2. 300 people killed so far this year. and another 100 kidnapped.
Among the abducted is James Boyard, the cabinet director of Haiti’s Defense Ministry, kidnapped last week in one of the capital’s few “relatively safe” areas.
Guterres’ one-day visit to Port-au-Prince came as the scale of homelessness spreads. The U.N. data shows more than 1 in 10 people homeless—an indicator that what began as localized territorial violence has now engulfed the daily reality for hundreds of thousands.
The vehicle convoy sped past a neighborhood once fully controlled by gangs. where in their wake car dealerships were decimated. homes were abandoned and dozens of concrete buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. A colorful bus known as a tap-tap rumbled by with its windshield peppered with bullet holes.
Near a crumbling wall, graffiti read: “Down with Viv Ansanm, long live the police.” Viv Ansanm is a powerful gang federation that the U.S. government designated a foreign terrorist organization, and it is estimated to control 70% of Port-au-Prince.
In Port-au-Prince, the streets are not only dangerous—they are unstable. The violence has pushed more than 300,000 people displaced across the city, a record. Among them, more than 18,000 people fled Cité Soleil in May, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration.
Gregoire Goodstein, IOM chief of mission in Haiti, said in a recent statement that “Haiti’s displacement crisis is entering an even more alarming phase.”
Haiti gang violence United Nations António Guterres Port-au-Prince displacement Cité Soleil Viv Ansanm International Organization for Migration Human Rights Watch
1 in 10 homeless?? That’s just heartbreaking, and the fact it’s gangs… like how is anything supposed to function there.
So the UN guy is touring around in a convoy and pretending it’ll help? Meanwhile my cousin says the real issue is “outside meddling” but nobody wants to say who. 🤷♂️
I don’t get it, didn’t the UN already fix Haiti like years ago? Also “Viv Ansanm long live the police” like… I thought the police were also part of the problem? Idk, sounds like everyone’s stuck in the same loop.
Wait James Boyard got kidnapped?? The article makes it sound like a “relatively safe” area but that term is basically meaningless at this point. And 70% of Port-au-Prince controlled by that group… so the whole city is basically just waiting for the next shooting. It’s sad but also like, what exactly is the UN even doing besides driving past bullet holes?