Haiti’s government has declared a three-month state of emergency across key central regions as gang violence intensifies, crippling the nation’s agricultural heartland and worsening a food crisis.
The measure, announced Saturday, applies to the West, Artibonite, and Center departments and aims to “continue the fight against insecurity and respond to the agricultural and food crisis,” according to an official statement.
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The affected region — long considered Haiti’s primary rice-growing area — has come under repeated gang attacks in recent years. Armed groups have killed farmers, forced communities to flee, and destroyed cropland, severely disrupting food production.
The United Nations human rights office reports that from October 2024 to June 2025, gangs in Artibonite, the Central department, and nearby areas killed over 1,000 people, injured more than 200, and kidnapped 620 others.
Violence has also displaced over 239,000 residents in the central region. In one mass escape in late April, dozens of people were seen wading or swimming across Haiti’s largest river to flee gang incursions.
In a bid to bolster security forces, the government on Friday appointed a new interim director general to lead Haiti’s National Police. The force is coordinating with Kenyan police officers heading the U.N.-backed multinational mission deployed to help quell gang violence.
