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Drones and private military contractors are vital to beating back violent gangs that are on the brink of collapsing the Haitian state, the head of its transitional government has said, despite international criticism of the “kamikaze” drone campaign.
The gangs control more than 85 per cent of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to the UN, and are on the verge of overrunning it entirely. With police outgunned, the increasingly desperate government has turned to US private contractors and drones rigged to explode on impact.
Canada, which has donated drones to Haiti, has said their lethal use, which began in March, violates both Haitian and international law.
But Fritz Jean, chair of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, contested that interpretation, telling the Financial Times it had no other way to stem the gangs’ advance.
“We needed this air support in order for the police and army to enter gang areas,” said Jean, who has previously been tight-lipped on the use of drones. “If you don’t call that a war, I don’t know what is.”
Much of the capital has been overwhelmed by gang violence and more than 1.3mn Haitians — over ten per cent of the population — have been displaced nationwide. But some legal experts say the gangs are not sufficiently organised for the conflict to be deemed a war.
“The population has had it up to here, and the government cannot just sit and watch,” said Jean, a US-trained economist, in a video interview.
He added that authorities “want to make sure” drones are used legally, and said no collateral damage has been reported — though independent actors are often unable to access those areas.
Diego Da Rin, a Haiti analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the drones have been “a game-changer”, allowing security forces to strike inside heavily defended gang strongholds.
“Gang leaders are extremely careful right now because of these drone strikes,” Da Rin said. He cautioned, however, that without increased ground operations, any gains will be shortlived.
No major gang leaders have been killed in the drone strikes, and the state is yet to take back neighbourhoods. But local rights group the National Human Rights Defence Network estimates that more than 300 gang members have been killed, while 400 have been wounded.
“We are getting more successful against the gangs” with the support of a Kenyan-led and UN-authorised security force plus the US private groups, Jean said, speaking from a heavily-guarded compound. Both the security forces and the gangs “are now sharing the same fear”, after a long period of gang dominance, he said.
The drone programme is being led by a task force under acting Prime Minister Alix Fils-Aimé, staffed by Haitians and private contractors, Jean said, declining to share further details.
On Wednesday, Jean requested more transparency from Fils-Aimé on the task force in an open letter.
Haiti, the western hemisphere’s most impoverished nation, fell into chaos when president Jovenel Moïse — the country’s last elected leader — was assassinated in 2021. Some 5.7mn Haitians now face food insecurity.
The transitional presidential council that Jean leads was installed in April last year after a coalition of gangs known as Viv Ansanm forced the collapse of acting prime minister Ariel Henry’s interim government.
Before its mandate expires in February next year, the council is tasked with convening Haiti’s first elections since 2016.
“But in order for us to have a really credible election, we must have some sense of security,” said Jean, whose leadership of the council will transfer to businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr in August.
The gangs were initially formed and funded by business and political elites, in order to attack competitors and turn out voters in elections.
But in recent years they have gained autonomy, their war chests bolstered by charging tolls on roads around the country, alongside extortion and kidnapping. The US in May designated Viv Ansanm and the Gran Grif gang as foreign terrorist organisations.
The gangs have torched homes and historic buildings during their advance. The feted Grand Hotel Olafsson, which served as the inspiration for Graham Greene’s 1966 novel The Comedians, was burnt down earlier this month.
In the central town of Mirebalais, bandits have taken over the main radio station and named it after themselves.
“The chaos that we are living in Haiti is a construct from interest groups that have captured the state for their own benefits,” Jean said, adding that gangs still operate in collusion with “allies from people in the private sector and government”.