The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti reported that at least 1,617 people were killed and 580 others injured in the first quarter of 2025 alone — continuing the catastrophic pace of lethal violence that had made Haiti one of the world’s deadliest countries relative to its population. The first quarter figures included deaths from gang violence, self-defense group actions, and security force operations, painting a comprehensive picture of the multiple forms of armed violence tearing communities apart.
At least 161 kidnappings for ransom were recorded in the first quarter, with 63 percent of cases occurring in the Artibonite department — confirming the continuing expansion of the kidnapping industry beyond Port-au-Prince into the agricultural heartland. The kidnapping figures understated actual cases significantly given the widespread practice of families paying ransoms quietly without reporting to authorities.
A surge in criminal group activity aimed at expanding territorial control in Pétion-Ville, Delmas, and Kenscoff — previously relatively secure areas of Port-au-Prince — was documented in the first quarter. Gangs that had consolidated control of the lower city were pushing into the hillside neighborhoods that had maintained some security through their more affluent populations and private security resources. The progressive erosion of the last pockets of relative safety in the capital was accelerating.
The UN’s top envoy for Haiti warned that the country was on the verge of “total chaos” as coordinated gang violence continued to escalate, threatening the state’s ability to maintain any semblance of public order. The warning reflected an assessment that the trajectory of deterioration, if unchanged, would produce a complete collapse of state authority rather than the gradual stabilization that the transitional arrangement had promised.