US guns pour into Haiti, fuelling surge in violence

Haiti is a state out of action. Details of a presidential transitional council have still not been revealed. One of the challenges this council will have to face is the illegal trafficking of guns. The escalation in violence has sparked an exodus from the capital.

Most of the violence gripping Haiti is centred in the capital, Port-au-Prince. David had been living in Cap-Haitian for two years without his parents. His father did not want him to become a victim of the violence. The journey was very long, more than six hours, says David.

He becomes visibly angry as he tells us he has a message for the US. The weapons are fuelling the staggering surge in Haiti’s gang-related violence. The UN report said some estimates put it at half a million legal and illegal weapons here as of 2020. It reported that guns and ammunition were being smuggled in from land, air and sea from US states.

In July 2022, Haitian authorities seized a huge haul of dozens of weapons with 15,000 rounds of ammunition. They were stuffed in a shipment from Florida heading to an Episcopal church in Haiti. The UN also identified the use of several clandestine airstrips built for humanitarian purposes after the devastating earthquake in 2010. The US says it will throw its weight at the problem of guns and gangs, too.

We are resisting, we have our ways: informants, checkpoints. Are they afraid of us? Of course. We are not playing.

Anything can happen. I would like Haitians to wake up and work to have a better country" Juliette Dorson, 50, fled Port-au-Prince after surviving a shooting. The party planner still bears the scars from the bullets which hit her. She was ambushed at an event she was catering for.

Ten people were killed, including her 22-year-old business partner. Juliette shows us the small space she currently lives in, sharing a bed with a friend. It is a world away from the home she once owned in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The gangs have claimed that.

She cannot return. The government didn’t do anything to stop it.