Name: Haiti capital under gang control with residents in survival struggle | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-07-27T17:28:06.000Z
Duration: 16 min 31 s
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Let's turn to events in Haiti now where the capital Port-au-Prince and their gangs now control 90% of the city the police are outnumbered and outgunned government authority has all but collapsed and Ordinary Haitians are trapped in a daily struggle for survival in the past six months more than four thousand people have been killed That's compared to five thousand six hundred fatalities recorded in total last year Cuts to u.s.

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Aid are compounding the crisis leaving already vulnerable communities without food health care or protection Over a million people have been forced to flee their homes as violence and insecurity spreads But it's women and children who are suffering the most one in five Victims of sexual violence is a child and some victims of rape are as young as six With rare access to the streets of Port-au-Prince this report from Noelle Alma Gaffey Producer Jasmine Dyer and cameraman Phil Pendlebury includes upsetting content We're back in Haiti Six months on and the gangs here now control nearly all the capital Port-au-Prince The violence and horror here is relentless We're not gonna let them come here kill us still everything we have bring cars burn houses kill kids They don't care.

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They kill anything a complete breakdown of society where women and children suffer most They raped me I had my six-year-old with me they raped her too a Country where one in five victims of sexual abuse are under the age of 18 Port-au-Prince is the worst place in the world to be a woman Haiti is on the brink of collapse We've just been shot at by one of the gangs and they've shot our front tire which has gone flat and the fight is intensifying When we're fighting we are possessed we are no longer human we become the devil Jamu this is the front line of a growing war against the gangs This is Delmas 30 the scene of a recent gang attack Women were raped families murdered an entire neighborhood now in ruins Rodrigue is going back for the first time and is taking us with him So the gangs are stationed about two blocks away and we're going into Rodrigues neighborhood, which is still contested territory We're being escorted by vigilantes.

They are basically civilians who are trying to keep the neighborhood safe.

They're filling in the security vacuum Alright, they're ready for us to go in.

Let's go The vigilante is signaled to snipers on the roof of a nearby bank They're protecting the area to keep the gangs from returning and they are close The neighborhood is a maze of alleyways At every open space we have to run to avoid being spotted by the gangs Finally we reached the ruins of Rodrigues home This is my bedroom, this is the kids room, this is where I cooked the bathroom is at the back We had a good life here We were sleeping, it was 5.30 in the morning and we had the ambush Shooting and fire.

We had no choice but to flee There were so many victims People killed, they carried them out in wheelbarrows People were hacked to death so many victims The atmosphere is tense and suddenly our visit is cut short We don't know who shot, do we know for sure?

So we've just heard some shooting and We've been told that it's probably the snipers from the bank, but we're worried that the gangs may retaliate at any moment So we're gonna leave The battle against the gangs is intensifying and It's not just the bullets people fear.

Rape is being used as a weapon We're at a safe house in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince It's home to dozens of young women and girls They're victims of the most heinous crimes Exposed far too early to the cruelty of mankind This girl is a survivor of rape We've come here to interview women who are victims of sexual violence But I'm blown away by how young they are, young girls holding on to babies The youngest victim of rape is 12 years old and the eldest is only 19 Helen was 17 when she was captured She's now 19 years old and a single mother The gangs took over our neighborhood and as we fled they caught me She was held captive for over two months They raped and beat me Sometimes I think about ending it all.

They made me do things and said they'd kill me if I didn't agree But then I felt pregnant and they told me to abort the pregnancy But I said no, this baby could be the only one I ever have While the gang was fighting she managed to escape I was so scared I always dreamt of going to school to learn and to make something of myself.

I always knew I'd have children Just not this young In Haiti rape has been used to terrorize and subjugate entire communities The statistics of how the violence is impacting women in Haiti are staggering Tell me more about what you're seeing Port-au-Prince is the worst place in the world to be a woman Why?

They flee without nothing They are in centers where there is no water, no sanitation They are overcrowded and they suffer from direct violence because they are exposed Both in the centers as well as in the streets to the men that are attacking them because they are powerless to defend themselves Haiti's most notorious gangs have united Forming a powerful coalition called Vivent Sarm, meaning live together We're entering their territory to meet one of their leaders They told us not to film but this is what we were able to capture An area in ruins with barely any signs of life Vag and his men were responsible for the Delmas 30 attack This is his first interview I mean look around you people have been uprooted from their homes Civilians have been killed, women have been raped, children have been murdered.

We are people when like this you sit and talk to us, but if you're cornered will come out swinging You know We spoke to victims of the attack in Delmas 30 and some of their testimony is the worst I've ever heard Why would you inflict such horror on your own people?

As a gang leader, it's my duty to fight I will never give up until the state sits down with us.

The dialogue will be good for us But until then we'll fight.

It's the wealthy state that has decided to take us on.

That's a difficult question because I'm fighting.

Sometimes I kill people without even seeing them They get shot and they die.

Then we take their bodies and burn them These chains I'm wearing belong to the people I've killed.

Chains, rings, I take them and wear them to command the spirit of the dead And this is the view from those sent in to confront the gangs The Kenyan forces arrived a year ago heavily armed and equipped with armored vehicles.

They rarely leave But in the six months since we were last here the gangs have only become more organized and more powerful So we've just entered the area of Pakor which is yet another neighborhood in this city.

That's completely controlled by gangs now They can see one of the gang members Within minutes we come under fire Just been shot at by the gangs and it seems like they've aimed for the tires Our front tire is now flat.

And so we're looking for a safe place to park and assess the damage I mean, there's only so much that the Kenyan police can do from inside this vehicle.

They are outnumbered There are thousands of men out there that have joined the ranks of the gangs Moments later a bus full of civilians turns towards us Narrowly avoiding the crossfire.

This is the kind of everyday terror they live with With no success and our vehicle out of action the patrol ends But the Kenyans are no longer the only foreign fighters in town We've been told by a source within the Haitian security force that they've hired private military contractors from the u.s They're fighting the gangs with drones They say one of them is led by Eric Prince Former Navy SEAL and Blackwater founder and that he's recruiting mercenaries to deploy on the ground Prince didn't respond to our request for comment The mercenaries are already making gains Gang leader to la play who we interviewed six months ago is the one targeted in this video He's now said to be in critical condition The fight against you right now is really ramping up There are American mercenaries that are going to come there are drones being used.

Messina cap The mercenaries who are making these plans who are plotting against us The only thing I would say to them is how will they differentiate between us and the rest of the population?

What would they do when we hide amongst the people?

Are they going to destroy all of Port-au-Prince?

But Port-au-Prince is already being destroyed street by street The fighting has driven over a million people from their homes to places like this a former Public Works Ministry now home to thousands of people Including Rodrigue a tailor by trade.

The only thing he could save was his sewing machine It's been three months and we're still here I can't stay here with my wife and kids this life wasn't mine at 61 I can't start over.

No nothing The Haitian government is responsible The gangs are in charge now if the government had acted to protect us would never have gotten to this point It's the failures of the government which have led us here Everyone here in this IDP camp and there are thousands of people We're uprooted from that one attack in Delmas 30 and that's what these gangs do They go in and their brutality is hard to describe, but they uproot people from life as they know it Gernose and her four children live in these two rooms along with 20 of their extended family I lost my home in Delmas 30.

They killed my auntie and my uncle I want to go home, but there's nowhere for me to go.

I used to be able to feed myself, but now I can't I'm losing weight and I'm walking the streets in rags Haiti's long been one of USAID's largest recipients of funding and for the people here It is a lifeline, but as President Trump cracks down on what he calls wasteful spending that lifeline is about to be cut Today you are seeing the last food we have from the US government It has arrived from the US and it's now being distributed, but we will run out We will not have no food If we stop giving food to the vulnerable women that are in displaced centers and the women that are in host families they will have to find this food somehow and that will make them very vulnerable, much more vulnerable than they are now As food supplies run dangerously low, so does the resilience of those most at risk At another women's shelter across town, we meet more survivors of sexual violence.

Their stories are very distressing They shot my husband, they shot my little brother.

At the same time they went over to my 16 year old daughter who was sleeping Luckily for me, she was bleeding so they didn't rape her They raped me.

Our neighborhood was ambushed I went back home only to find my mum, my dad, my sister, all were murdered Their testimony shows a pattern of rape, murder and arson MSF data, shared with us exclusively, show that it's only getting worse The number of sexual abuse victims they've seen has nearly tripled since 2021 Patients have started to share very, very difficult stories since 2021 They were always harrowing stories Nowadays, survivors talk about two or four or seven or up to 20 aggressors So you're saying one woman raped by 20 men?

Some of our patients are as young as six years old and on average 20% of the patients are under the age of 18 And in this neighborhood, the risk to women and children is ever present This area is right on the front line.

The gangs are just a few hundred meters down the street Vigilantes stand guard, protecting their territory.

Mike is one of them I ask why so many young boys are joining the gangs Because they give them money.

If you kiss that in the ground, they don't have no money They say they like how to live.

So of course they go join them Despite the government contracting in security reinforcements, for many it is too little, too late They've been left to fend for themselves, taking matters into their own hands We're not going to let them come here and kill us.

Steal everything we have, burn cars, burn houses, kill kids They don't care.

They kill anything You know what I'm saying?

So we're not going to quit The gunshots are getting really close.

They made me jump But when I look around, everyone looks really calm and it's because of how used to it they are As Haiti continues to battle itself, its people are desperate for some relief Longing for a life of peace and not just survival Nawal al-Maghafi and the team reporting there and you can get more details on that story on the BBC News website