Fresh gang attacks frustrate Haiti businesses, hit charity hospital as residents flee
A new wave of violence by armed groups fighting for territorial control in Haiti has left at least eight people dead in the Lower Artibonite region north of the capital over the weekend, and forced the evacuation of neighborhoods along with one of the few operational hospitals in Port-au-Prince.
The French medical charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières said Monday that its staff was forced to evacuate and suspend operations at its hospital in the Cité Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince after more than 24 hours of heavy clashes between armed groups. The announcement came hours after residents in Croix-des-Bouquets and others neighborhoods in the Cul-de-Sac Plain fled their homes in the dark.
The gang violence prompted the United Nations to warn employees Monday to avoid roads near the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, which is bordered by both Cité Soleil and Croix-des-Bouquets.
The surge in violence comes as residents in the gang-controlled regions of the Lower Artibonite and the West region, where Port-au-Prince is located, are seeing more activity by armed groups, which appear to be exploiting delays in the deployment of the U.N.-authorized Gang Suppression Force. Despite a recent by comment by the president of Chad that the land-locked African nation will deploy 1,500 soldiers as part of the 5,000- total, the arrival has been slow in coming.
The intense fighting between several rival armed groups in the neighborhoods of Cité Soleil and Croix des Bouquets has deepened frustrations among business owners, who spent Monday trying to account for missing employees.
“In just 12 hours, our teams treated more than 40 people with gunshot wounds,” said Davina Hayles, head of mission in Haiti for Médecins Sans Frontières. “One of our security guards was also struck by a stray bullet right inside our hospital compound.”
Hayles said staffers managed to evacuate the guard, who is now in stable condition. She called it “unthinkable“ that their medical teams and civilians should become victims of the clashes.
The fighting broke out on Sunday morning and medical teams at the French charity’s hospital in Cité Soleil quickly became inundated with an influx of patients with gunshot wounds. They also took in more than 800 people seeking safety, the medical organization said. The gunfire has not stopped, leaving the charity’s hospital in Cité Soleil trapped in the middle of the clashes.
“Several hundred inhabitants of Cité Soleil, as well as our colleagues and their families, have sought refuge in our hospital, having no other option to shelter from the gunfire,” Hayles said. Hospital teams also treated patients from the nearby Fontaine Hospital, including pregnant women who gave birth between Sunday and Monday. At present, Médecins Sans Frontières said, no hospital remains open in the area where the fighting is taking place.
Violence engulfing Artibonite, West
For weeks now, businesses operating near the airport and in the Cul-de-Sac Plain, where cane fields belonging to the Rhum Barbancourt distillery were recently set ablaze, have been sounding the alarm.
“The fear is that the area will essentially be forgotten by the government and left to die,” Fracesca Eugène, a representative of Rhum Barbancourt, told the Miami Herald.
Rhum Barbancourt, Brasserie de la Couronne, Séjourne S.A. and Comme Il Faut recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé requesting an urgent intervention. The area needs additional police as well as repairs to the deteriorating roads. Eugène said craters in some places are nearly six feet wide, and make it difficult for police to reach affected neighborhoods when they do deploy.
Separately, the nonprofit Association of Industries of Haiti, which represents textile companies in the area, sent a letter expressing alarm over the deteriorating security situation. So far, Eugène said, there has been no response from authorities.
“We’re talking about thousands of jobs, hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs,” she said. “Each one of those companies has a social arm and does a great deal for their communities. We’ve had to completely stop all the services of our foundation, including providing drinking water. It’s become very hard for the area. Today, we have employees who are essentially on the run. and we are trying to account for them.”
In a post on X on Monday morning, Delphine Gardère, the distillery’s owner, shared a video showing residents fleeing their homes in the dark.
“Unbearable scenes, always the same one,” she wrote. “Women. Children. Entire families forced to flee to survive. Meanwhile, civilians fall victim to stray bullets. Businesses are struck by gunfire. An entire region lives in terror.”
She said one of her employees was killed by gunfire during the night, noting that the violence, which began escalating last month, has continued “despite the numerous memos, alerts, and repeated requests regarding the Cul-de-Sac Plain.”
Attacks in Lower Artibonite
On Saturday, an early morning attack in Kafou Robert, a locality in the fourth communal section of Saint-Marc, left at least eight people dead and three others wounded. The victims were traveling to Verrettes when they were ambushed, reportedly by members of the Gran Grif gang.
Video footage shared with the Miami Herald by a resident showed three burned motorcycles along the roadside, and their drivers either dead or gravely wounded and covered in blood. The attackers stole five other bikes.
Another attack was reported in the third communal section of Marchand-Dessalines by the Kokorat San Ras gang. The area lies just outside Gonaïves, Haiti’s so-called “city of independence.”
In a report released on Friday, the U.N. said 1,642 people were killed during the first three months of this year. The Artibonite region, the report said, was the site of some of the deadliest attacks, many of which began in late March and continued through April,
the U.N. said gang members carried out coordinated attacks against 16 localities in the Lower Artibonite, where several self-defense groups are also located. At least 83 residents were killed and 38 others injured. Some victims were taken from their beds in the middle of the night and shot dead in front of their homes.
The Cul-de-Sac
Located east of Port-au-Prince, the Cul-de-Sac is a vast area that’s home to several powerful gangs. In recent weeks, it has become a focal point in a widening struggle for territory ahead of still-unscheduled elections, with groups that were once rivals now working in concert to seize ground.
Some observers believe the recent upsurge in violence in both the Lower Artibonite and Cul-de-Sac carry political and electoral overtones, coinciding with a series of protests that have also recently erupted.
The conflict is affecting not only livelihoods but also operations around Toussaint Louverture International Airport. On Sunday night, as rumors spread of an imminent gang attack, residents in La Plaine fled toward the airport with whatever belongings they could carry.
Although the airport remains barred from receiving U.S. commercial flights, it continues to operate with other international carriers. But the surrounding area remains volatile, with sustained gunfire in nearby neighborhoods increasingly disrupting operations.
In an interview with the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste that aired Monday, Fils-Aimé, who was at the Vatican over the weekend meeting with Pope Leo XIV, acknowledged that security conditions remain too unstable for the country to hold elections this year.
Haiti faces a severe humanitarian crisis. Nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced and close to six million people — half of the country’s population — are experiencing acute hunger. Despite the growing crisis, donor support remains lagging, the U.N. has said.
This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 6:20 PM.
