Here’s how the gangs looted several media outlets in Port-au-Prince

Since February 2024, members of the “Viv Ansanm” gang coalition have attacked at least four radio stations in the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince, murdered two journalists, injured seven others and kidnapped another for ransom

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On the night of March 12 to 13, around two in the morning, heavily armed men stormed the premises of Radio Mélodie FM, located at the corner of Roy and Capois streets – seven minutes from the National Palace.

They forced the main gate, broke the windows, dug a hole in the ground floor wall before methodically looting the institution’s equipment.

According to the station’s director, Klaus Macajoux, the attackers took away a mixing console essential for broadcasting, microphones, laptops and several wall-mounted air conditioners.

The criminals set fire to several nearby buildings, but the station was spared because it “serves as an exit point and a strategic position,” Macajoux believes.

Radio Mélodie FM, which was able to save its archives accumulated since its launch in September 1998, joins the list of victims of a violent gang offensive against the media.

Since February 2024, members of the “Viv Ansanm” gang coalition have attacked at least four radio stations in the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince, murdered two journalists, injured seven others and kidnapped another for ransom, according to a press release from the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) dated March 17, 2025.

The criminals had murdered the two press workers in December 2024, during an abortive attempt to reopen the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH).

Read also: The government negotiated with the gangs to reopen the Chancerelles hospital

On the night of March 12 to 13, 2025, they set fire to the premises of Radio Télévision Caraïbe (RTVC).

RTVC officials report the probable loss of several recording studios, automatic editing devices and computer and solar equipment, according to a recent article published by AyiboPost.

For the moment, RTVC, relocated before the attack, continues to broadcast. But Mélodie FM stopped all broadcasting.

On the night of March 15 to 16, 2025, the bandits set fire to part of the Télé Pluriel premises in Delmas 19. Its director, Marie Lucie Bonhomme, recovering after a stroke in February 2025, received the news as a “shock”.

Images show traces of a fire and a hole in the entrance to the building. Some ceramic tiles were torn out. “ The station is a life’s work. It took us eleven years to build the studio,” says Bonhomme, a journalist since 1987 and recipient of the 2025 Greeley Peace Prize from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Currently, “the channel, which has been broadcasting since 2012, operates on a limited basis thanks to an emergency installation on the Boutillier site,” Emmanuel Paul, former coordinator of the news room and collaborator of the media, reveals to AyiboPost.

On April 25, 2024, bandits looted for several days the century-old daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste, located on rue du Center.

Other press institutions located in areas targeted by gangs express their concern to AyiboPost. This is the case for two media outlets based in Turgeau.

Because of the pressure exerted by gangs on rue Capois and avenue Christophe, Tropic FM radio hastily left its premises on rue Malval. Tropic FM has interrupted its programs for three days. “We had to set up on the Boutillier site without preparation, in unsuitable premises,” explains its information director, Daniel Saint-Hilaire.

Other press institutions located in areas targeted by gangs express their concern to AyiboPost. This is the case for two media outlets based in Turgeau.

Radio Télé Émancipation, for its part, fled rue O in December 2024 for an undisclosed location, after receiving threats, notably via an anonymous letter.

“We are mainly targeted for the retransmission of the program Ti Koze ak TT by journalist Thériel Thélus,” reveals its general director, Jean Renel Sénatus. This YouTube show regularly denounces the actions of gang leaders.

“All of our journalists work undercover, without identification badges, thus avoiding any apparent link with the institution on the ground,” explains the head of Radio Télé Émancipation.

We are mainly targeted for the retransmission of the program Ti Koze ak TT by journalist Thériel Thélus

-reveals Jean Renel Senatorus.

 

Bandits attacked one of the Émancipation’s journalists on rue Cameau, in 2023. It is not clear whether this was a retaliation.

The offensive against the media seems intentional.

In October 2024, gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, aka « Barbecue », ordered the bandits to attack the media.

Several journalists – Johnny Ferdinand and Guerrier Dieuseul from RTVC, Widlore Mérancourt from AyiboPost and those from Radio Télé Émancipation – have since been the subject of open threats.

For Klaus Macajoux, head of Mélodie FM, these are “deliberate attacks against the Haitian press”.

Organizations defending press freedom express their concern.

Several journalists – Johnny Ferdinand and Guerrier Dieuseul from RTVC, Widlore Mérancourt from AyiboPost and those from Radio Télé Émancipation – have since been the subject of open threats.

“The medias attacked do work that disturbs the bandits,” declares Marie Auguste Ducéna, program manager within the RNDDH.

According to Ducéna, the Haitian authorities show no will to put an end to gang attacks. And, “working as a journalist in Haiti,” continues the human rights defender, “remains very dangerous.”

In 2024, a ranking of the global impunity index Committee to Protect Journalists places Haiti at the top of the countries where the murderers of journalists are likely to go unpunished, before Israel.

“The fact that there are no institutions to protect reporters who cover sensitive topics and who may face retaliation from the individuals or groups they cover critically is really concerning,” Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s US, Canada and Caribbean program coordinator, told AyiboPost.

The attack on journalists at HUEH last December cost the lives of reporters Marckenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean.

These two murders, as well as five others that occurred in Mexico in 2024, are among the deaths singled out by CPJ, which ranks the year as the deadliest for journalists in the organization’s history, according to a special report published on February 12, 2025.

The fact that there are no institutions to protect reporters covering sensitive topics from facing retaliation from the individuals or groups they critically cover is truly concerning.

-Katherine Jacobsen

Florise Desronvil, journalist and reporter for the online media Reyalite Lakay TV, witnessed the death of her two colleagues, hit by projectiles at HUEH.

“I had time to move away from the barrier, but I received a bullet in the waist and another in the back,” reports the 34-year-old journalist.

She has been working in journalism for two and a half years.

The bandits also shot and injured five other reporters during this bloody day.

Velondie Miracle was part of the group. She has been working in the profession for five years and captures images for the online platform Nouvèl 509.

At the time of the attack, Miracle was near the hospital gate, awaiting the arrival of the then Minister of Public Health, Duckenson Lorthe Blema.

Around eleven o’clock, the bandits opened fire towards the hospital fence.

“I received five bullets in my left leg, another on the left side of my head, then a third on my right cheek,” the 28-year-old professional explains to AyiboPost, from a hospital bed in Cap-Haitien.

Miracle awaits evacuation to Port-au-Prince, after medical follow-ups in Cuba, but the after-effects of the attack persist.

“I sometimes have memory loss because of the operation I had on my head,” she says. I have pain in my foot and gums, scratched by a bullet. »

But the attacks do not deter the press: journalists take to the streets everyday to inform and continue to relay the situation in Haiti to the rest of the world.

“As soon as I recover, I will return to practice my profession. I will not give in to any cowardice,” concludes Miracle.

By Jérôme Wendy Norestyl & Lucnise Duquereste

Cover | Photo showing a radio studio (Source : Freepik) accompanied by a masked man holding a weapon (Source : The Haitian Times). Collage : Florentz Charles for AyiboPost