Haiti’s humanitarian crisis deepens amid escalating gang violence and rights abuses
Haiti’s humanitarian crisis in 2025 is marked by a deadly confluence of escalating gang violence, institutional collapse, and widespread human rights abuses. More than 1,520 people died in the second quarter of the year alone during a wave of violence that swept through Port-au-Prince, Artibonite, Centre and environs. The migration of armed groups, most of them acting with impunity, has entrenched their control over strategic urban and rural areas further weakening the already weak authority of the state.
Alliances of gangs, especially the group known as the “Viv Ansanm” have been extending their range of control, which involves ruthless methods such as massacred killings, burning of houses and targeted kidnapping. With fighting becoming increasingly fierce, over 1.3 million people have been displaced inside the country with hundreds of people displaced every week. At makeshift camps and congested shelters, there are minimal safety and services thus the displaced families remain prone to much more violence, starvation, and diseases.
Rise In Vigilantism And Collusion With State Forces
The worsening violence has raised up informal vigilante squads, who are popularly referred to as “Bwa Kale” locally, have been accused of extrajudicial executions, fire setting and assaults on alleged affiliates of gang members. In a large number of situations, these are the groups that act in collaboration with or at the implicit permission of the overworked police forces. This vigilantism trend indicates the hopelessness of the communities that have no protection, yet complicates the situation in relation to violence and responsibility.
Impact On Women, Children, And Civilian Life
Women and children become disproportionally affected by the crisis. Violence against women has also rendered to its highest peak with the latest records showing that rape and sexual assaults form the majority of recorded cases, mostly perpetrated by gang members. This disregard is applied systematically through use of violence to intimidate the communities and establish authority over contentious territories with impunity.
Survivors of these attacks also have additional problems in getting healthcare, psychological support or legal recourse. There is less protection mechanism and reporting is still discouraged by social stigmatization that adds to the silence of such crimes even more.
Child Recruitment And Hunger Crisis
The outlook facing children in Haiti is gloomy and grim. Close to half a million of minors reside in direct gang districts and are on high exposure to being involuntarily put to work, trafficked, or armed. There are children who are forced to be in possession of weapons or drugs, some become rounds of human guards in territorial disputes.
Food insecurity is also at the highest point, with over 5.7 million of the Haitian population having acute hunger or close to half of the total population. Water and sanitation, access to medicines and basic health care are grossly lacking. Of all the 217,000 children screened with acute malnutrition in the first half of 2025, only 17 percent have been treated as humanitarian outreach has potentially horrific gaps.
Collapse Of Basic Services And Infrastructure
Haiti’s fragile health infrastructure continues to disintegrate under the strain of protracted conflict. But only around 40 percent of health facilities are in operation and most of them are plagued by chronic shortages of staff, equipment and medication. The insecurity has spurred on the outflow of medical practitioners, especially the rural clinics and hospitals.
Cholera has re-appeared in several departments notably in zones that are rich in conflict. More than 1,300 people have lost their lives due to cholera since late 2022, and the spread of disease relates to contaminated water sources and unimproved sanitation. The absence of the possibility of reaching high-risk areas limits the effect of activities aimed at vaccinating populations and intervening during outbreaks.
Disruption To Education
The education level has been affected dearly. Officially, there are still over 1,600 schools that are closed after being either destroyed or inaccessible to students because of the gang involvement. Frequent cases of schools and teachers being attacked by students and their teachers too have been reported with most educators leaving violence prone regions. A future of once again attending school is uncertain to hundreds of thousands of Haitian children placed at risk of long term development threats involving further vulnerability to recruitment or exploitation.
Constraints On Humanitarian Response
Roadblocks, gang check points and active gun battles highly limit access to the crisis affected populations. Aid workers have been extorted or refused entry to gang-controlled zones, including by humanitarian convoys being repeatedly shot at. According to UN agencies and Non Governmental Organisations unless drastic solutions are provided to enhance security within the region, there is no hope to provide any form of lifesaving assistance to those at the greatest need.
The level of international funding has plummeted even though there is a widely-acknowledged crisis. By mid-2025, only 9 percent of the required funds had been achieved under the $908 million Haiti Humanitarian Response Plan that is run by the UN. Shelter, nutrition, protection, and health programming operational budgets are already quickly being expended and agencies are being forced to reduce even life-saving interventions.
Warnings From International Agencies
Ulrika Richardson who is the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti pointed out that it is hell on earth as the ordinary Haitians live with the threat of displacement, being raped or killed being ever present. She insisted on the necessity of an international solidarity and reconsideration of the contemporary security measures in order to safeguard civilians and humanitarian workers.
During a meeting of the UN Security Council in May 2025, in the person of the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Ghada Fathi Waly, a warning was sounded that Haiti is entering in fact the phase of the collapse of state power. She called upon the member states to act now to reduce the flood of illegal weapons fueling the power of gangs as well as police reform.
Advocacy, Accountability, And Global Attention
International human rights organizations have called for a coordinated strategy to dismantle armed gangs, enhance police training and oversight, and restore the rule of law. The Haitian National Police (PNH), while under-resourced, remains the primary security force and requires international backing in both technical and operational dimensions.
Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups continue to stress the need for civilian protection, particularly for women and children, and for accountability mechanisms that address crimes by all armed actors, including vigilante groups and state-affiliated forces.
Humanitarian expert Josh Eakle recently posted on social media about the dire need for greater global engagement. He emphasized how Haiti’s insecurity cannot be viewed in isolation from the humanitarian despair it generates and called for sustained, responsible international assistance.
The Haitian people are one of the most chronically unfortunate, victimized people in modern history.
— Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 (@JoshEakle) March 13, 2024
Haiti isn't a failed state because of the character of the Haitian people.
Haiti is a failed state because they've been routinely abused, victimized, and exploited for virtually… pic.twitter.com/xMoyzoLAJI
Navigating A Fragile Road Ahead
The path of the Haitian crisis during 2025 resulted in a further decline of the humanitarian crisis as a result of insecurity, poor governance, and degrading social fabrics. Human rights violations and gang violence have not been controlled, and millions of people are exposed to additional miseries, due to the crippled aid delivery system.
The reconstruction of Haiti cannot be done by providing security. Such a concerted approach through political stabilization, social investments, and community resilience-based approaches have to be put in place. The leadership at the local level should be boosted and civil society should be safeguarded and international players must invest in the long-term and principled approach.
In what direction Haiti proceeds in the months to come may determine how the international community truly responds to one of the longest-term and most complex crises in the Western Hemisphere. There is a shortening interval of time to act–yet resilience is possible, when accompanied with determination.
