Description: Haiti’s police forces have clashed with members of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Port au Prince. The clashes were mostly concentrated in the Croix de Bouquets area in the Ouest department of Haiti. Police forces after the confrontation stated that more than 7 gang members were neutralized, while one police helicopter crashed near the province under suspicious circumstances. The Viv Ansanm gang coalition still controls more than 90% of the country’s capital while gang violence in Haiti has so far displaced more than 1.4 million people. The Kenya – led security mission was expected to be complemented by a US – Panama led proposal which included funding and additional troops through the UN, however, efforts have so far stalled on assembling the gang suppression force.
Impact: Haiti’s gang crisis is once again entangled in the complicated bureaucracies of international relations and politics as the gang suppression force’s assembly has been stalled, and no additional efforts are made to support the police forces in countering the gangs. The Viv Ansanm gang coalition so far managed to successfully expand its territorial footprint of influence, firmly holding control of the country’s capital and its surrounding provinces and neighborhoods in the absence of a comprehensive security response. The Haitian police has evident issues in mobilizing resources and personnel in order to effectively start combating the gang violence in the country. The conditions on the ground would continue to remain unstable, potentially even deteriorating further, since the international response has been stalled in a period where security efforts need to be ramped up.