Gang Violence in Port-au-Prince: A Crisis in Haiti
Giles Clarke has never seen the gang violence this bad in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital and main port.
“Gangs now control some 75% of the city,” said Clarke, a New York-based photojournalist who has been visiting the Caribbean country on and off since 2011. “The streets I used to walk are now barricaded with burnt-out vehicles as entire neighborhoods desperately try to protect themselves from gang-led abductions and attacks.”
Warring gangs control much of Port-au-Prince, choking off vital supply lines to the rest of the country. Gang members have also terrorized the metropolitan population, forcing some 200,000 people to flee their homes amid waves of indiscriminate killing, kidnapping, arson, and rape.
Clarke was in Port-au-Prince recently and photographed the overcrowded displacement settlements that have sprung up all over the area. These shelters can be found in schools, churches, former theaters, and even boxing gyms.
“I was there when school was supposed to be starting for the new year, but instead, many are now overrun by families in tents who sleep on the floors of the classrooms,” Clarke said. “Mothers hold hungry babies as NGOs rush to provide basic needs such as clean water, baby formula, and a daily meal if outside security allows access. Many of those I met complain about being unable to access clean water or medicine.”
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who took leadership of the country after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021, has been calling for military assistance to help restore security. Consequently, the UN Security Council greenlit the deployment of an armed multinational force.
This aerial photo shows a cemetery near the airport in Port-au-Prince. Giles Clarke/Getty ImagesDisplaced Haitians take shelter at the Rex Medina theater in downtown Port-au-Prince. The former theater was closed after the country’s devastating earthquake in 2010, but it was reopened in August by a group of local residents seeking safety from gangs. Giles Clarke/Getty ImagesAbandoned vehicles serve as barricades in Port-au-Prince to prevent non-pedestrian access, limiting the risk of kidnappings and gang attacks. “It was shocking to arrive back in Port-au-Prince under new levels of severe threat and risk,” said photographer Giles Clarke.
Abandoned vehicles serve as barricades in Port-au-Prince to prevent non-pedestrian access, limiting the risk of kidnappings and gang attacks. “Over the years, I had covered many different stories and regions of Haiti with relative freedom of movement,” photographer Giles Clarke said. “It was shocking to arrive back in Port-au-Prince under new levels of severe threat and risk.” Giles Clarke/Getty Images
An ill woman is dropped off by a friend at the UNICEF-supported Fontaine Hospital in Port-au-Prince. The hospital provides free health care in one of the most troubled areas of Port-au-Prince. Giles Clarke/Getty ImagesDisplaced people charge their phones at a school that has been converted into a displacement camp.Tents are set up at the Gymnasium Vincent, a school and sports complex that has become a displacement camp in downtown Port-au-Prince.Displaced women and children take shelter in a school gymnasium after fleeing their homes.A Haitian woman waits for other family members at a settlement that was a former school in Port-au-Prince.Schools, churches, and sports halls have been improvised as emergency shelters to house the sudden influx of displaced residents.A displaced family lives at the Rex Medina theater in Port-au-Prince. Giles Clarke/Getty ImagesPeople take shelter at a boxing arena in downtown Port-au-Prince. Giles Clarke/Getty ImagesA man who recently fled from his home walks down the corridor of a former school that has been turned into a shelter.A man carries sandwiches to sell at a displacement camp in Port-au-Prince. Inflation has soared past 50%, leaving 4.9 million Haitians struggling to eat.A medical team at the UNICEF-supported Fontaine Hospital helps a child who was injured in a traffic accident.A family, driven from their home just hours earlier, set up shelter at an abandoned school in Port-au-Prince.A woman and her daughter prepare a meal at a shelter in Port-au-Prince. Giles Clarke/Getty ImagesThis children’s playground has been converted into a shelter in the Tabarre area of Port-au-Prince.A woman resides with other family members at an abandoned building in the Delmas 4 area of Port-au-Prince. Help is on the way to Haiti in the form of an armed multinational force, but Clarke says not all Haitians are optimistic. “Many Haitians fear a multinational deployment, which could undoubtedly lead to running street battles with the now heavily armed gangs,” he said. “Many others cannot trust any internationally brokered political outcome, adding a new level of confusion and despair gripping an already crippled society.”
A woman resides with other family members at an abandoned building in the Delmas 4 area of Port-au-Prince. Help is on the way to Haiti in the form of an armed multinational force, but Clarke says not all Haitians are optimistic. “Many Haitians fear a multinational deployment, which could undoubtedly lead to running street battles with the now heavily armed gangs,” he said. “Many others cannot trust any internationally brokered political outcome, adding a new level of confusion and despair gripping an already crippled society.” Giles Clarke/Getty Images
