Haitian Gangs Launch Major Offensive: Paramilitaries Seize 50% of Artibonite Region Amid Total Collapse of State Authority
LONDON, UK – 12 December 2025
A Major Offensive by Haitian Gangs has pushed the nation to a new, perilous breaking point, with heavily armed paramilitary groups seizing control of half the crucial Artibonite Region.
This dramatic territorial conquest comes against the backdrop of a widening political vacuum and the near-total Collapse of State Authority, marking what police unions have called the single greatest security failure in modern Haitian history.
The offensive has choked the country’s agricultural heartland, unleashing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis that threatens to plunge the entire nation into a state of famine and irreversible chaos.
Headline Points
Territorial Seizure:
Armed gangs, primarily the notorious Gran Grif organization, have seized an estimated 50% of the Artibonite department, Haiti’s largest and most vital agricultural region.
Mass Displacement:
The attacks have triggered massive civilian displacement, adding to the hundreds of thousands already displaced, with residents fleeing towns like Pont-Sondé and Bercy.
Security Failure:
The Haitian National Police (PNH) and limited deployments from the UN-mandated security mission have proven unable to contain the surge, which has allowed gangs to consolidate control over strategic national roadways.
Humanitarian Catastrophe:
The Artibonite, known as the nation’s breadbasket, has seen its agricultural supply chains crippled, intensifying a food insecurity crisis that already affects over 5.7 million people.
Criminal Governance:
The latest offensive underscores the gangs’ shift from mere criminal activity to exercising a form of “criminal governance” across multiple departments, expanding their influence towards the border.
The Fall of the Breadbasket
The Artibonite department, located north of the capital Port-au-Prince, has long been the backbone of Haiti’s domestic food production.
Its fertile valleys are now the epicenter of a brutal territorial conflict, transforming Haiti’s most productive region into a sprawling war zone.
According to desperate communications from the nation’s police union (SPNH-17), the latest large-scale attacks over the past weeks—targeting strategic rural communes including Bercy and the commercial hub of Pont-Sondé—have resulted in the complete capitulation of law enforcement presence in key zones, with 50 per cent of the department now under uncontested criminal control.
The latest wave of violence, attributed largely to the Gran Grif gang led by the sanctioned figure Luckson Elan, saw paramilitary groups sweep through communities, killing residents indiscriminately, burning dozens of homes, and targeting crucial police infrastructure.
The assault on the police station in Marchand-Dessalines, for instance, left a resident dead and the facility destroyed, raising widespread fears that the last vestiges of state presence are being systematically liquidated by the armed groups.
The attacks are strategic, designed to seize control of the major road corridors connecting the capital to the north and east, thus granting the gangs full chokehold over national supply lines and movement.
From Crisis to Total State Collapse
The Artibonite offensive is not an isolated event but the clearest manifestation yet of the state’s catastrophic disintegration.
The Collapse of State Authority is now an operational reality, evidenced by the fact that the Haitian National Police (PNH) has been repeatedly overwhelmed, outnumbered, and outgunned.
The lack of response in key areas, even after explicit warnings from local officials and self-defense groups, speaks to a profound systemic failure.
As a political activist in the region, Charlesma Jean Marcos, noted: “For now, the only people really fighting [the gang] is the self-defense group. A country cannot run like this.”
This security vacuum has been exacerbated by the continued political paralysis in Port-au-Prince, where infighting within the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) has stalled efforts to create a legitimate governing structure.
This institutional vacuum has been shrewdly exploited by criminal groups to extend their territorial capabilities, turning what began as a crisis of violent crime into a crisis of sovereignty.
With gangs already controlling an estimated 80 to 85 per cent of the capital, the seizure of Artibonite means that the two largest departments in the country—West (which includes Port-au-Prince) and Artibonite—are now functionally governed by criminal entities.
Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
The consequences for the Haitian people are unspeakable.
The Major Offensive has inflicted a devastating humanitarian toll, adding to the grim statistics recorded throughout 2025. Between January and August of this year, the UN reported 1,303 victims of gang violence in the Artibonite and Centre departments alone, compared to 419 in the same period last year.
The latest assaults have generated a fresh wave of internal displacement, forcing thousands of families to flee into makeshift camps where access to food, water, and healthcare is virtually non-existent.
Critically, the Artibonite offensive has directly threatened the nation’s food supply. Farmers have been forced to abandon their land and markets have been closed, severely disrupting the movement of produce.
This livelihood disruption is actively worsening a food insecurity crisis that affects over five million Haitians, pushing the country further into famine-like conditions.
International aid efforts, already struggling with logistical constraints and the deliberate targeting and looting of supplies by armed groups, are now facing an even more perilous environment.
The United Nations has reiterated its call for an improvement in the situation, warning that the expansion of gang control along key routes poses a major risk of spreading violence and increasing transnational trafficking of arms and people toward the Dominican Republic.
Despite the presence of a limited UN-mandated Gang Suppression Force, its resources are reportedly insufficient to reassert long-term control over the affected areas.
The Haitian people remain caught in an unending cycle of horror, victimised not only by the brutal gangs but also by a government that has ceased to be an effective protector of its citizens.
The seizure of Artibonite is a stark, bloody testament to the failure of both domestic and international efforts to prevent the final, tragic collapse of the Haitian state.
