Haiti‘s government has declared a three-month state of emergency in several parts of the country, including the West, Centre, and Artibonite departments, in an effort to combat escalating gang violence. The measure aims to boost the fight against insecurity and address the agricultural and food crisis. According to the government, insecurity has had a negative impact on citizens’ lives and the country’s various sectors, necessitating a major mobilization of state resources to address the crisis.
“Insecurity has negative effect both on the lives of citizens and on the country’s different sectors of activity. Given the scale of this crisis, it is imperative to decree a major mobilisation of the state’s resources and institutional means to address it,” the government stated. This move comes as Haiti grapples with years of violence, exacerbated by the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, which created a power vacuum.
The gang violence has resulted in significant human suffering, with nearly 1.3 million people displaced across the country, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The United Nations estimates that 4,864 people were killed from October 2024 to June 2025. Furthermore, between October 2024 and June 2025, over 1,000 Haitians were killed and 620 kidnapped in the Artibonite and Centre departments, as per the UN’s human rights office.
In a bid to quell the violence, the government appointed Andre Jonas Vladimir Paraison as interim director of Haiti’s National Police. Paraison, who previously served as head of security of Haiti’s National Palace and was on duty when Moise was killed, vowed to provide security across every corner of the country. “We, the police, will not sleep. We will provide security across every corner of the country,” Paraison said during his inauguration ceremony.
Paraison replaced Normil Rameau, whose tenure was marked by tensions with a faction of the Transitional Presidential Council, notably Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime. Rameau had repeatedly warned about the police force’s severe underfunding. The change in leadership comes as Laurent Saint-Cyr, a wealthy businessman, took over as president of the Transitional Presidential Council, tasked with holding elections by February 2026.