Scorched earth in Cité Soleil: UN force will try to contain anarchy in Haiti

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Haiti has plunged into an abyss of widespread violence and conflict driven by more than 200 armed groups.

On the morning the clashes broke out again, Orpheline was getting ready to go to Mass with her husband and two daughters. For several days, the streets of the Terre Noire neighborhood in Cité Soleil – the largest municipality on the coast of Port-au-Prince, a tangle of plastic and mud that has served for years as a battleground for some of the Haitian capital’s most ruthless gangs – had been busier than usual, with heavy traffic of dark SUVs and armed men.

This was nothing out of the ordinary in a city within a city that has functioned as an informal refugee camp for more than 300,000 people since the 2010 earthquake. It is a boundless expanse of corrugated iron roofs just a few steps from the sea, entirely under the control of armed gangs. Then, on Sunday, May 10, the rhythmic, heavy bursts of M-16 gunfire everywhere left no question about what was going on.

Orpheline and her family, still wearing their Sunday best, bolted their doors and have not moved since. They took a quick inventory of their food supplies before beginning the task of rationing whatever was left in the pantry, unsure of what the coming days would bring. She sent a few messages to her closest loved ones and a brief email to the management of the health center where she........

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