In Port-au-Prince you can’t see the boundaries, but you should know where they are. Your life may depend on it. Competing gangs are carving up the Haitian capital, kidnapping, raping, and killing at will. They limit their territory in the blood. Go from one gang’s turf to another, and you can’t get it back.
The people who live here have a mental map, which divides this flowing city into green, yellow and red zones. Green means gang-free, yellow can be safe today and deadly tomorrow, and red is a no-go zone. Green space is shrinking as heavily armed groups tighten their grip.
According to Haitian human rights groups, armed groups control — and terrorize — at least 60 percent of the capital and its environs. They surround the city and control the roads in and out. And the United Nations says the gangs killed nearly 1,000 people here between January and June this year.
This report contains material that some readers may find disturbing, including sexual violence
Port-au-Prince is nestled between green hills and the blue waters of the Caribbean. It is covered in heat and neglect. In places the litter is knee-deep – a reminder of the squalor. There is no head of state (the last person in office was assassinated), no functioning parliament (gangs control the surrounding area) and the US-backed prime minister, Ariel Henry, is unelected and highly unpopular. are
