Port-au-Prince (EFE).– Haiti has once again declared a state of emergency as gang violence worsens across the Caribbean nation, with at least 1,520 people killed and 609 injured in the second quarter of 2025. The move comes just six months before the February 2026 deadline to hold long-delayed general elections.
The Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) and the government announced the measure over the weekend, citing the need to “continue the fight against insecurity and respond to the agricultural and food crisis” in a country where at least one in three residents of metropolitan Port-au-Prince is internally displaced.
Persistent crisis and leadership changes
This is not the first emergency declaration since the CPT took office in April 2024, and Haitians remain impatient for results.
The council pledged “firm determination to take all urgent and necessary measures to restore security, ensure the proper functioning of state institutions, and rebuild national dignity.”
Laurent Saint-Cyr, who assumed the CPT’s rotating presidency last Thursday, declared “war” on armed gangs, urged the international community to send more troops, and said the time for speeches is over.
On Friday, Andre Jonas Vladimir Paraison was appointed head of the Haitian National Police (PNH) and tasked with “intensifying operations on all fronts” to liberate gang-controlled territories.
A Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), led by Kenya and composed mainly of police units, is deployed in Haiti but has failed to halt gangs that control 90% of Port-au-Prince and are expanding into other regions.
According to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the human rights situation remains “extremely concerning.”
Gangs weaken in some areas but recruit minors
While gangs continue to bleed the country, hundreds of members have been killed in clashes with the PNH, multinational forces, drone strikes, and by armed civilians.
This has weakened some groups in parts of the capital, but residents say gangs are increasingly recruiting minors to replace those killed.
In areas under their control, gangs enforce their laws, administer beatings for alleged crimes, and operate road checkpoints that have driven up public transport fares and prices of essential goods.
No election date set
The CPT has yet to deliver on its two key promises: restoring security and calling elections.
Haiti last held national polls between 2015 and 2016, ending in the election of Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated in July 2021.
The council was formed after a political agreement following the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in March 2024, amid violent unrest.
Henry, who was appointed rather than elected after Moïse’s killing, had faced backlash for reportedly planning to postpone elections until August 2025, despite his mandate expiring in February 2024.
With no date set for elections and violence still rampant, the latest state of emergency underscores the deep challenges facing Haiti as it struggles to stabilize before the February 2026 deadline. EFE
mm/seo/mcd