September 2023 published on CNN.
Haiti has a long and brutal history of uprisings, chaos and instability. The past two years have been no exception. On July 7th, 2021, then-President Jovenel Moise was assassinated at his home in Port-au-Prince in a targeted political killing. In the two turbulent years since, Haiti's political system has further spiraled into even deeper chaos, resulting in the explosive rise of gang warfare and counter-vigilante violence. In July 2023, a Kenyan-led multinational police force was proposed by the United Nations, which in turn sparked the more active Port-au-Prince gangs into a brutal race to claim new territory within the city before any overseas deployment arrived.
In October 2023, the United Nations Security Council greenlit the deployment of an armed multinational force with Kenya at the forefront to spearhead the 2024 operation. As of late December 2023, the Kenyan Congress was stalling on its approval to send some 1200 police personnel to the beleaguered Caribbean island.
Meanwhile, anarchy reigns in much of the capital today. The warring gangs now control some 75% of Port-au-Prince, choking off vital supply lines to the rest of the country. There is no single safe road in or out of the city. Gang members have terrorized the metropolitan population, forcing people to flee their homes amid waves of indiscriminate killing, kidnapping, arson and rape. According to UNICEF, since mid-2022, the gang violence in Haiti has left 3,700+ dead and displaced some 210,000 country-wide, with over 130,000 in Port-au-Prince, with over half that number displaced being children.
The photographer was in Port-au-Prince in September 2023 to document the overcrowded displacement settlements that have sprung up all over the city in schools, churches, former theaters, and even boxing arenas as more and more city residents seek safety.