At least 78 people have been killed and 66 wounded since the weekend in a surge of gang violence around Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). Among the dead are at least ten civilians. More than 5,300 people have been displaced since rival armed gangs opened fire on one another, torching homes and trapping families inside affected neighbourhoods.

The scale of the violence forced a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) hospital in the area to shut its doors, as sustained gunfire made it impossible to operate safely. The organisation had already treated more than 40 gunshot victims within the first twelve hours of the clashes, and one of its security guards was struck by a stray bullet. "It is impossible to provide care in the middle of gunfire," a hospital spokesperson said. "A hospital where staff are not safe cannot function."

The latest bloodshed is part of a broader and deepening crisis. In the first quarter of this year alone, at least 1,642 people were killed and 745 wounded across Haiti, according to BINUH figures. Armed gangs are responsible for 27 percent of those casualties. The UN agency also reports that gangs have used sexual violence against more than 292 victims, the majority of them girls aged between 12 and 17, describing it as a deliberate tool to punish communities living under their control.

Gangs now control an estimated 90 percent of Port-au-Prince, blocking roads, attacking infrastructure and cutting off access to humanitarian aid and food distribution points. More than 1.3 million people across Haiti have been displaced by gang violence overall. The Haitian police lack the capacity to confront the armed groups, the UN has acknowledged.

In response, the UN Security Council authorised an international support mission — mandated for twelve months beginning in October last year — comprising at least 5,500 peacekeepers tasked with neutralising gangs, restoring infrastructure and restoring humanitarian access. The mission's work has been hampered by the poor state of Haiti's roads, which limits where troops can patrol. Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has faced recurring cycles of political instability, natural disasters and armed violence for decades, leaving its institutions with little capacity to respond to the current crisis.