Armed gangs in Haiti free 500 inmates after storming a town

By Kielce Gussie

Gang members stormed the town of Mirebalais in central Haiti on Monday and freed about 500 inmates from a prison. Extra police officers have been deployed to the town about 50km northeast of the nation’s capital, a spokesperson for Haiti’s national police stated.

The police have reclaimed the town, but local reports warned many of the escaped inmates were still on the streets.

Armed gangs have control of almost the entire capital. However, this latest attack suggests they are expanding their reach into towns in other parts of the country.

'Gang violence' does not capture the suffering

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, explained to the Human Rights Council in Geneva that various gang coalitions have launched coordinated attacks, outnumbering the police force, on schools, orphanages, and hospitals. He described the situation in Haiti as “yet another crisis point.”

Backpacks and belongings of a family who fled gang violence hang on the wall in a newly opened shelter near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince   (AFP or licensors)

With the heavily armed gangs’ control increasing, public institutions in ruins, and the humanitarian crisis growing each day, Türk said he’s not sure “the usual depiction of gang violence captures the amount of unbearable suffering” that the Haitian people are experiencing.

4,239 people were killed and 1,356 injured between July 2024 and February 2025 as a result of this gang violence.

Long-standing crisis

While Haiti has experienced a multidimensional crisis for decades, at the end of February 2024, gang violence in the country escalated, and more than 15,000 people were displaced in just one week.

UN High Commissioner, Volker Türk, spoke to the Human Rights Council in Geneva   (AFP or licensors)

In spite of efforts from the Haitian National Police and the Security Council-mandated Multinational Security Support Mission, the State is losing traction. More than one million people are now displaced, some 40,000 in just the last few weeks.

Half of the 5.5 million people in the country endure acute food insecurity, and 2 million have been classified as facing emergency hunger levels. As about 500,000 children have been displaced – ¼ suffering stunted growth due to malnutrition - the UN High Commissioner described the situation of the children as devastating and something that “will impact them for life.”