Haiti’s armed gangs are increasingly expanding from Port-au-Prince into rural areas, adopting hit-and-run tactics including kidnappings, cattle theft and roadblocks while security and political responses remain focused on the capital, a new report said on Monday.
– The analysis, published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime’s Haiti Observatory, said the shift amounts to more than an extension of urban gang activity into the countryside.
- Gangs are using small, mobile units to carry out rapid raids, harass communities and move between areas serving as sanctuaries and targets, the report said. The approach allows armed groups to project influence and disrupt daily life without permanently occupying territory.
- The report cited the recent attack on Kenscoff, a mountainous community outside Port-au-Prince, as an example of the changing nature of gang violence. The assault killed dozens of people and involved a mass kidnapping, it said.
- It also highlighted worsening insecurity in Artibonite, one of Haiti’s main agricultural regions, where gangs have targeted communities, transport routes and farmland.
- The growing violence in rural areas poses a challenge for Haitian security forces, which the report said lack the personnel, equipment and training needed to counter highly mobile armed groups across mountainous and dispersed terrain.
- The report said a security response alone would be insufficient, calling for measures to protect farmers, restore local economies and address long-running land and community disputes, alongside efforts to disarm and reintegrate gang members.