“They raped me and hit me every day”: the systematic abuse of young people during the attacks of the criminal gangs in Haiti

He managed to escape while the band fought another group for the control of the area.

Now, with 19 years, Helene has spent the last year raising her daughter in a shelter in a suburb of the city.

At least 30 teenagers who sleep in bunk rooms in colored rooms live in that safe house.

Helene is the oldest rape survivor. The youngest resident is only 12 years old.

Playing and dancing on the balcony with a blue polka dot dress, Helene seems much less than her age because she suffered malnutrition in the past. The staff tells us that it was raped several times.

Violations and other acts of sexual violence are increasing in Haiti as armed bands expand their control in Port -au -Prince and other places.

The Caribbean island has been mired in a wave of violence of bands since the murder in 2021 of the then president, Jovenel Moïse.

It is difficult to measure the magnitude of sexual violence. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has a clinic in the center of port prince for women who suffered sexual abuse. The data that MSF shared exclusively with the BBC shows that the number of patients almost tripled since 2021.

The bands are known for razing neighborhoods and killing dozens of people. MSF states that multiple violations of women and girls are usually part of these large -scale attacks.

According to survivors, bands use violations to terrorize and submit entire communities.

The BBC raised to band leaders the complaints of murders and violations. One of them told us that they do not control the actions of their members and that they believe they have the “duty” of fighting the State. Another said that “when we fight we are possessed, we are no longer human.”

“The young women have begun to share very, very difficult stories since 2021,” says Diana Manilla Arroyo, MSF Mission Chief in Haiti.

“The survivors talk about two, four, seven or up to 20 aggressors,” he says, and adds that now more women say they have been threatened with weapons or have been beaten until they are unconscious.

Women also denounce more frequently than their aggressors are under 18, he adds.

In a reception center in another part of the city, four women – aged between 20 and 70 years – describe have been attacked in front of their children and husbands.

“Our neighborhood was attacked, I returned home and found my mother, my father and my sister killed. They killed them and then burned the house with them,” says a woman.

After inspecting her devastated home, the young woman was about to leave the neighborhood when she met some gang members. “They raped me; I had my six -year -old daughter with me. They also raped her,” he continues. “Then they killed my little brother in front of us.”

“Every time my daughter looks at me, she's sad and cries.”

Other women denounce aggressions that follow a similar pattern: murders, violations and fires.

Sexual violence is only one of the elements of the crisis in which it is mired. UN agencies claim that more than a tenth of the population – 1.3 million people – has fled their homes, and half of the population suffers acute hunger.

Haiti has not had elected leaders since the murder of Moïse. A Transitional Presidential Council and a series of prime ministers appointed by it are responsible for directing the country and organizing elections.

The rival bands have allied to attack the Haitian State instead of attacking each other.

Since our last visit in December, the situation has deteriorated. Hundreds of thousands of more people have been displaced. More than 4,000 people died in the first half of 2025, compared to 5,400 in all 2024, according to the UN.

It is estimated that the bands increased their control of 85% to 90% of the capital and have taken over key neighborhoods, commercial routes and public infrastructure, despite the efforts of an international security contingent led by Kenya soldiers and backed by the UN.

We joined the international force while patrolling an area controlled by the bands, but in a matter of minutes one of the tires of a armored vehicle was shot and the operation ended.

The members of the contingent rarely leave their armored vehicles. The bands continue to acquire powerful weapons and have advantage, according to experts.

In recent months, Haitian authorities have hired mercenaries to try to recover control.

A source of Haitian security forces told the BBC that private military companies, including an American, operate on the ground and use drones to attack the leaders of the bands.

He also showed us images of drones of the moment, according to him, the leader of a band called Ti Lapli was the target of an explosion. The same source said that Ti Lapli was critical, although the BBC has not been able to confirm it.

But throughout the city the fear of the bands persists. In many neighborhoods, surveillance groups have decided to protect their communities and take security in their own hands, which has further increased the number of armed people in the streets.

“We are not going to let the bands come here and kill us, to steal everything we have, to burn cars, houses and kill children,” says a man who uses the name of “Mike.”

He adds that he operates with a group in Croix-Des-Prés, a bustling market zone close to the territory controlled by bands.

When shots sound in the distance, nobody flinths. People are accustomed.

Mike says that the bands pay children to join them and mount seals where they demand money from residents who pass by.

“Of course everyone is afraid,” he tells us. “We feel alone trying to protect women and children. As the bands continue to spread, we know that our neighborhood could be the next.”

Humanitarian agencies claim that the situation continues to deteriorate and that women are the most affected, since many of them face the double trauma of sexual violence and displacement.

Lola Castro, regional director of the UN World Food Program, says that Puerto Príncipe “is the worst place in the world to be a woman.”

The women are also likely to feel here the impact of cuts on humanitarian aid programs, he adds.

Haiti has long been one of the largest fund receptors of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which President Donald Trump has trimmed drastically, calling her “waste.”

When we visited it in June, Castro said that the WFP was distributing its last supplies of food aid financed by the United States.

Food delivery protects women, he adds, because they avoid having to go out to beg or look for food.

Humanitarian workers fear that cuts soon affect support for victims of violence in places like the reception center where Helene lives.

Manilla Arroyo, from MSF, states that the funds for contraceptives have also been reduced: “Many of our young people already have children. Many of them are under 18 and have children. The risk of pregnancy represents many new challenges for them.”

Helene and other adolescents often sit to chat on a balcony that gives port prince, but many of the young women are too afraid to get out of the safety of the refuge walls.

Helene doesn't know how she will keep her little daughter when she grows up.

“I always dreamed of studying, to learn and do something from my life,” he says.

“I always knew that I would have children, but not so young.”

This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence tool for translation, As part of a pilot program.

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