‘We are at war': Why Haiti's leaders are turning to a rogue brigade to help fight gangs
A well-regarded 350-bed hospital, one of the last ones left in the country, now stands nearly empty. The home of one of its staffers was burned to a crisp. So too was the house of a former president of the Haitian Senate.
The newest attacks have all occurred outside of Port-au-Prince in Haiti's heartland, which is quickly emerging as a new battlefront for armed gangs bent on taking over the country.
On Thursday, as criminal groups continued to overwhelm security forces and threaten the collapse of Haiti's government, the ruling presidential council announced a new strategy in the fight: Enlisting members of a controversial armed group — which once tried to topple the government — to help battle the insurgency.
Fritz Alphonse Jean, the current head of the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council, said its members have decided to tap members of the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas to help the Haiti National Police, the Armed Forces of Haiti and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission in the fight against Viv Ansanm, the heavily armed coalition seeking to take control of the country.
'We will identify those with good records,' Jean said about members of the Brigade de Surveillance des Aires Protégées, which the United Nations has described as a paramilitary force operating outside of the control of the Haitian government, often with illegally obtained firearms.
The presidential council has asked the prime minister to put the measures in place quickly, Jean said, as members of the council stood behind him looking on. 'We will remind everyone in this government: We are at war.'
Jean made the announcement on Thursday during an address to the nation in which he blamed the escalating violence on drug and arms traffickers, and acknowledged the current violent surge has been stretching security forces as they fight on multiple fronts, sometimes in three different regions of the country at once.
Thursday's address came on the one-year anniversary of the April 3, 2024, political accord, brokered by the U.S. and the Caribbean Community, that was supposed to serve as a road map for Haiti's transitional government.
But instead of bringing stability, the transitional council has been marred in scandal and is now facing increased calls to step down.
After a massive protest on Wednesday where riot police fired tear gas and live rounds on crowds trying to reach the offices of the council and Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, former Prime Minister Claude Joseph launched a protest of his own, calling for the resignation of the council.
Joseph's EDE political party, along with the civil-society group known as the Montana Accord, are part of the nine sectors of Haitian society that have representatives on the council. Jean, an economist and current council leader, is the Montana's representative.
Jean did not respond to the resignation request, but in his address to the nation said the transition team remains committed to handing over power to an elected president and parliament on Feb. 7.
That goal, however, seems increasingly unlikely given the ongoing chaos, which Jean acknowledged as he announce plans to increase the fighting ranks by tapping members of the controversial brigade.
The brigade is an environmental group connected to the Ministry of Environment, and its agents are supposed to protect Haiti's natural resources. But they are located in cities across Haiti, and officials in Port-au-Prince have no control over the various brigade entities outside of the capital.
The brigade was the brainchild of Jovenel Moïse, the president who was assassinated in 2021. After creating the brigade in 2017, Moïse also empowered its recruits to carry weapons and named the head of a political party to run it.
Under the leadership of Jeantel Joseph, the brigade became a powerful entity operating outside of the government. Last year it mushroomed into a full-fledged rogue force as Joseph aligned himself with former rebel leader Guy Philippe to launch demonstrations around the country to oust the prime minister at the time, Ariel Henry. Jeantel was eventually fired.
Though not all members of the brigade were involved in the anti-government demonstrations, the idea of including them in the ranks of Haiti's security fight remains worrisome. To begin, it is unclear what kind of security training its agents have, and while Jean has promised the members will be vetted, Haitian officials have repeatedly shown they are not particularly skillful at conducting such security and background checks.
Government officials repeatedly cite corruption in the Haiti National Police as an obstacle in the fight against gangs, which diplomats and others say underscore the lack of vetting. Similar concerns have been expressed about the Armed Forces of Haiti.
A United Nations experts' panel has repeatedly highlighted the brigade in reports on the acquisition of illegal weapons and ammunition. The brigade expanded between 2017 and 2024 'and constitutes a powerful armed entity outside government control with an estimated 6,000 members across the country,' the U.N. said in a February 2024 report.
Another U.N. report said 95% of the so-called members 'are not on any formal institutional payroll. The chain of command is unclear, with bitter rivalries between heads of brigades located in the same areas, each claiming their legitimacy.'
Brigade 'members' perform de facto police work and engage in a range of criminal activities, including illicit taxation on roads and cross-border trafficking, the U.N. report said, adding that 'agents are armed with a range of firearms,' including illegally acquired rifles.
'While the criteria for joining the Brigade include the possession of a firearm, weapons have also been supplied by local figures and purchased by some commanders with funds obtained in exchange for protection and from illicit activities,' the U.N. report said.
Haiti's authorities and the international community involved in the fight against criminal groups face a difficult task.
Since January, Viv Ansanm allies have launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince and the neighboring Artibonite region. They've burned homes, schools and businesses. They've kidnapped people and used them as human shields against a government task force that uses drones to drop bombs on gang strongholds.
The ongoing siege has forced as many as 185,000 people to flee their homes as of March, according to the U.N. Thousands of displaced people are now sheltering in makeshift sites, including schools and public buildings.
The Haitian police and the Kenya-led mission have found themselves outgunned, outnumbered and even out-witted. Last month gangs burned or confiscated at least a half-dozen armored carriers belonging to the police and the mission after setting booby traps and catching cops off guard.
This week, the insurgents expanded their reach to the rural town of Saut-d'Eau, whose picturesque waterfall is nestled between the west region, where Port-au-Prince is located, and the Central Plateau.
On Thursday, gangs burned to the ground the Saut-d'Eau home of a former president of the Haitian Senate and government minister, Simon Dieusel Desras.
'When they tell you to go back home, what home are you supposed to go to?' said Bianca Shinn, Desras' wife. 'They are hunting our relatives. Our family is fleeing, our town's residents are fleeing. This was a last refuge from the capital.'
Shinn says the head of the Canaan Gang singled her husband out as a target on the radio. For three weeks, she said, the pending attacks on Saut-d'Eau and Mirebalais were known. When gangs arrived, the local police in Saut-d'Eau and Mirebalais departed, leaving behind a SWAT team that didn't have enough ammunition.
'This is why I say this was an orchestrated and planned attack,' Shinn said. 'I've never seen this kind of hellscape, and the international community isn't doing anything.'
The fresh wave of attacks have created a dire situation for the 350-bed University Hospital in Mirebalais, built by Boston-based Partners in Health and the late Dr. Paul Farmer. Most of the staff have fled and patients have been evacuated.
Human-rights experts believe gangs are targeting the city due to its proximity to the border town of Belladère, which has emerged as a gateway for the illicit flow of arms, ammunition and contraband flowing from the U.S. to Haiti via the Dominican Republic.
On Tuesday gangs kidnapped two crew members from a Panama ship transporting sugar to a port in Port-au-Prince.
On Wednesday, hours after a massive protest by residents in the capital, gangs tried to take control of a base for one of the specialized Haiti National police units located not far from the U.S. Embassy in Tabarre. The gang members were pushed back by police but not before sowing panic in several neighborhoods east of the capital.
Jean, in his address to the nation, said traffickers of all kinds are to blame for the ongoing 'trafficking of drugs, ammunition, organs, money laundering and contraband.
'We are being subjected to the national and international mafia using the country's children to carry out all kinds of trafficking.'
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