Gang violence expanded dramatically into Haiti’s Centre department in 2025, with attacks on Mirebalais and Saut d’Eau that displaced over 51,000 people and marked the most significant incursion of Port-au-Prince-based gang networks into previously secure provincial territory. The attacks, which targeted road junctions controlling access to the Dominican Republic border, confirmed that gang territorial ambitions extended far beyond the capital.
The strategic logic of the attacks was clear: controlling roads to the Dominican Republic enabled gangs to tax smuggling, kidnap travelers, and maintain supply chains for weapons and other goods crossing the border. The economic value of these corridors made them targets worth fighting for, even at the cost of the massive displacement and violence that the attacks produced.
The Artibonite department continued to suffer sustained gang violence in 2025, with the UN reporting that 63 percent of first-quarter kidnapping cases occurred in the department — confirming it as the epicenter of the kidnapping crisis that had previously been concentrated primarily in Port-au-Prince. Farmers who had fled their land in 2024 had not returned in significant numbers, and the disruption to agricultural production was contributing directly to the food security crisis.
The geographic expansion of gang activity into the Centre and Artibonite departments had implications for the security mission’s operational focus. A force that was already under-resourced for Port-au-Prince could not simultaneously address provincial gang expansion, forcing choices about priorities that meant some areas were left without meaningful security coverage. The spreading of the crisis to new regions was outpacing the international response capacity being assembled.