Hard Work Ahead: Haiti's Government Seeks to Restore Security with International Support

Written in June 2024 after the killing of American missionaries Davy and Natalie Lloyd and local director Jude Montis, this analysis (originally published by Just Security) argues that violence that shocks the United States is daily life in Haiti, where gangs killed or injured more than 4,700 people in 2023, displaced over 600,000, and control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. The authors fault Haiti's business and political class for privatizing their own security while excluding citizens, and warn that without an adequate response Haiti risks sliding from fragile to failed state.

The proposed counter-gang strategy, to be developed by a Haitian National Security Council with international advisers and community input, has four pillars. First, shift the balance of force: the MSS mission brings capacity and mobility but is small, language-limited and needs enablers (drones, air support, intelligence), while Haiti redesigns its forces into tiers, community police backed by heavier units and rapid-reaction forces, and brings the sidelined army in. Second, comprehensive gang diversion and disarmament that separates foot soldiers, offered demobilization, vocational training and restorative community work, from leaders and, crucially, the elite patronage networks (from the Tonton Macoute to the Chimères to today's gangs) whose prosecution is a precondition for communities accepting DDR. Third, a temporary justice and prison system: courts have received donor support but administration and the penal system, further damaged by gang prison destruction, need emergency assistance. Fourth, real citizen involvement through roundtables and community-level justice and security dialogues piloted by USIP in Africa, with women, displaced people and youth prominent. The goal is restoring Haitians' basic rights and rebuilding trust and human rights protection as the foundation of long-term stability.