MIAMI — A new UN-backed military force is set to deploy to Haiti next month with promises that this time will be different. A damning report released yesterday suggests it faces a crisis larger than any foreign intervention has yet confronted.
One in four Haitians now live in areas controlled by criminal gangs, according to a UN Human Rights Office report published Tuesday. The data shows that at least 5,519 people were killed and 2,608 injured between January 2025 and March 2026, as gangs, security forces, private security contractors, and self-defense groups all contributed to the violence.
The numbers carry a brutal breakdown. Violence perpetrated by gangs resulted in at least 1,424 killed and 790 injured. But operations against gangs led by security forces caused even more deaths—at least 3,497 people killed and 1,742 injured. Self-defense groups attacking suspected gang affiliates caused an additional 598 deaths. In a country of 11 million people, the line between fighting gangs and becoming a source of harm to civilians has blurred to the point of near-disappearance.
This is the Haiti that the Gang Suppression Force—known as the GSF—is being asked to fix in April.
What is the Gang Suppression Force?
The GSF will in April take over from where its Kenyan-led predecessor—the Multinational Security Support mission—left off.
While that year-long mission ended in what was widely perceived as a failure in October 2025, the new force is expected to benefit from a fivefold increase in troops committed, to an expected 5,500, and what U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz has called a “strengthened mandate” to go after the gangs.
A “Standing Group of Partners” led by the United States and joined by the Bahamas, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, and Kenya will steer the GSF. Unlike traditional UN peacekeeping, the force will deploy under national flags rather than blue helmets, and will operate with authorization to take the fight directly to gangs rather than serving only in a supporting role alongside Haitian police.
The funding model is also different this time. A UN Support Office in Haiti will use funds from the UN peacekeeping budget to provide logistics, while a voluntary trust fund supports troops. That fund currently holds $174.1 million against $203.3 million in pledges, with contributions from France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, the United States, Canada, and others.
Mexico remains the only Latin American country to contribute, donating $100,000.
Why Skepticism is Warranted
Haiti has seen foreign interventions before—United Nations stabilization forces, the Kenyan-led mission, mult-inational deployments dating back decades. None has resolved the underlying crisis. Today’s gangs are fundamentally different from what they were even a decade ago. Once concentrated in a handful of slums and acting as paramilitaries for politicians and businessmen, they are now independent organizations with their own territorial ambitions, capable of financing themselves through extortion and controlling supply routes into and out of the capital.
The UN report documented victims subjected to gang-run “trials,” held captive, and forced to pay fines. Others were sentenced to death, shot, and in many cases, their bodies were burned with gasoline. Between March and December 2025, at least 1,571 women and girls were victims of sexual violence, mostly gang rape.
Human rights organizations warn that the new force carries significant risks of its own. Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher Nathalye Cotrino said the force still does not have a detailed code of conduct, adding: “We know that they are still working on that, but it’s kind of too late.” Amnesty International’s Johanna Cilano Pelaez stressed that GSF troops must be specifically trained in “gender-based violence” and child protection before deployment.
The drone operations already underway in Haiti—carried out by the Haitian government and private military contractor Vectus Global—have drawn particular concern. Crisis Group expert Diego Da Rin warned that drone strikes typically land in lower-income neighborhoods where gangs are embedded in the community. “When you attack them, you also attack the community,” he said. “At some point, resentment will explode, not only against those who killed children and families, but also against those who are perceived as being spared.”
The Haitian National Police Cannot Do This Alone
Any honest assessment of the crisis has to reckon with the collapse of Haiti’s own institutions. The Haitian National Police has suffered over 100 fatalities and lost more than 7,000 personnel since 2021. By the end of 2023, only around 9,000 officers remained on duty for a country of over 11 million—for comparison, New York City alone deploys 36,000 officers for 8 million residents.
Since a vetting process began in June 2023, the General Inspectorate of the Haitian National Police has opened investigations into 334 officers—but none of those cases have been finalized. The institution tasked with restoring order is itself under investigation for summary executions and extrajudicial killings.
What This Means for Miami’s Haitian Community
For South Florida’s Haitian diaspora—one of the largest in the world—these numbers are not statistics. They are family members, former neighbors, and the country that will host the World Cup this summer, with Haiti qualifying historically for the first time in 50 years.
That juxtaposition is jarring and real: the same Haiti preparing to send its national team onto a World Cup pitch in American cities is the Haiti where one in four people wake up under gang governance. The same families in Miami cheering for the Grenadiers are the families sending money home to relatives navigating gang checkpoints for basic goods.
The rise in violence also comes at a time when the U.S. Trump administration carries out heightened immigration enforcement restrictions, including the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for many Haitians from 18 to 12 months, though a legal challenge has temporarily blocked the termination. Rescue.org For Miami's Haitian community, the gang crisis in Port-au-Prince and the immigration policy shifts in Washington are two halves of the same impossible situation.
The Hard Question
The GSF deploys in April with more troops, more money, and a more aggressive mandate than its predecessor. But the UN’s own human rights office acknowledged that the force will need to take actions “beyond its purview”—including targeting the politicians, businessmen, and arms traffickers who fund and enable the gangs—if it is to have any lasting effect.
Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Alix Dider Fils-Aimé, asked whether he believes the new force can succeed, offered the most honest answer available: “I have hope. Of course, it is cautious.”
Cautious hope is what Haiti has been offered before. Whether April brings anything more substantive is the question 11 million people are waiting to answer.
Sociedad Media will continue to monitor Haiti’s security crisis, the Gang Suppression Force deployment, and their impact on Miami’s Haitian diaspora community. Have a tip or a story connected to Haiti? Reach out to our team at info@sociedadmedia.com—we want to hear from you.
