Photos | Neighborhoods looted after Viv Ansanm passed through

Jimmy « Barbecue » Chérizier, of the Viv Ansanm coalition, is urging people to return to most of the areas previously occupied by the gang. Residents are discovering fields of ruins and looted houses

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Serge Mombrun, a fitness trainer, lived in Solino for around forty years before fleeing the neighborhood in November 2024, following a violent attack by Viv Ansanm bandits.

About a year after his armed assault on Solino, the leader of the « Viv Ansanm » coalition, Jimmy Chérizier, alias « Barbecue », called on residents to return to their looted and ravaged homes, in a video posted on social media on August 25, 2025.

Mombrun, accompanied by dozens of other citizens, went to his home last August, in a deserted area where shrubs invade the roadway winding between blocks of burned-out houses with destroyed roofs.

Household utensils, metal sheets and clothes scattered on the ground in Delmas 30, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

Before leaving Solino in November 2024, Mombrun’s house was furnished with wardrobes, beds and other personal belongings.

When he returned, his belongings were gone.

« I found some identification papers of my family members, sports shoes and some sports equipment, » says Mombrun, who compares the scene to the earthquake of January 12, 2010, which left more than 200,000 dead in Haiti.

A loader picks up piles of garbage and old carcasses blocking the road in Delmas 18, August 2025. Photo: (Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost)

The sports instructor says he’s ready to return home for good. But he adds: « Only the police can order us to return, because we won’t collaborate with gangs. »

Several residents of gang-ravaged neighborhoods share his opinion.

This 28-year-old resident, who had lived in Impasse Adrien in Solino since childhood, had to leave the area and her small business just three months after setting it up.

The sports instructor says he’s ready to return home for good. But he adds: « Only the police can order us to return, because we won’t collaborate with gangs. »

During her visit eleven months later, she said she was pained to see the damage.

« The bandits looted everything, leaving only a few books and used clothes. The houses that were spared were burned, while the metal ornaments were taken away, » she notes.

Buildings, including a beauty studio and a warehouse, with completely gutted walls, in Nazon, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

Returning to live in Solino seems almost impossible for this young woman.

« I don’t trust the gangs’ invitation, » she said. « I think they will use locals as shields to prevent the state from carrying out its operations. »

As of March 2, 2023, the Solino neighborhood began to be attacked by the « Baz Bèlè » gang, led by former kidnapping prison escapee Sanon Kempès.

This district was not only strategic for besieging the capital, but also constituted a transit route coveted by the « Viv Ansanm » gangs to carry out kidnappings in Delmas, Bois-Verna, Turgeau, Bourdon, Lalue and Delmas.

« I don’t trust the gangs’ invitation, » she said. « I think they will use locals as shields to prevent the state from carrying out its operations. »

The October attacks displaced more than a thousand people in Solino and burned dozens of houses, until the neighborhood fell to the bandits in November 2024.

A woman, accompanied by a boy, carries an old chair leaving Solino towards the airport intersection, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

A man carries a gas bottle among the items recovered from his home after the gangs raided Solino, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

Until this attack, Solino was one of the few districts of the capital not controlled by an armed group.

Genson Jean Baptiste coordinates the Solino Central Humanitarian Corridor Committee, a local organization working with displaced people. He says he « notes the gangs’ withdrawal » but fears their imminent return.

The watchword is clear: « The population will not coexist with bandits. It is up to the State to ensure security, » asserts Jean Baptiste.

Residents also went to the Delmas 30 neighborhood, six months after the bandit raid on the night of February 24-25, 2025, which left at least ten people dead.

Delmas firefighters spray water on the highway between Delmas 19 and 30, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

This neighborhood, which houses institutional buildings such as the National Old Age Insurance Office (ONA) and a SOGEBANK branch, provides access to the premises of the state television station, Télévision nationale d’Haïti (TNH), located between Delmas 31 and 33, as well as to other private businesses along the highway crossing the area.

Photos taken by AyiboPost show the devastation and fire at the ONA building in Delmas 30.

Two dump trucks and a loader clearing the road in Delmas 7, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

Vandalized facade of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nazon, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

Vandalized entrance to the AZTK company premises near the Carrefour de l’aéroport, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

Several residents who have temporarily returned to Delmas 30 also confided their losses to AyiboPost.

For Jeannette, a fifty-something mother of six who had lived there for more than a decade, the losses were total.

« I grew up and raised my children here without ever having any problems. Today, I had to leave the area and lose everything I owned, » says the woman, now living in a camp for displaced people.

For her part, Nadia Joseph, who spent the six months following the attack on the streets without any support, explains: « I found nothing at home when I returned, and my house was burned down. » This mother had lived from selling sweets for ten years in Delmas 30.

Vandalized and looted premises of the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training in Nazon, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

Attempts at clean-up were also observed a few days after the gangs were announced in Delmas 30.

Delmas Fire Department officers were seen spraying water on the road using fire hoses.

For Getan Gerson, from Mouvman moun Deplase Dèlma 30 (MOMODEP), visiting the former residents is a first step in the return process.

The next step is to remove the barricades to allow Delmas town hall to clean up the neighborhoods, he said.

Damaged facade of the sub-police station of Delmas 3, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

During the month of November 2024, the districts of Nazon, Christ-Roi and Lalue were repeatedly attacked by armed gangs from the Viv Ansanm coalition.

Institutional buildings, including that of the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) in Nazon, were looted and then set on fire.

Other neighborhoods like Pacot and Croix-Desprez also suffered the fury of the bandits.

A telecommunications antenna without several cables in August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost

According to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), at least 1,600 people were killed and 609 others injured between April and June 2025.

More than 1.3 million people are internally displaced within the country, according to an estimate by the International Organization for Migration published in June 2025.

By : Jérôme Wendy Norestyl & Jean Feguens Regala

Cover | A man carries a gas bottle among the items recovered from his home after the gangs raided Solino, August 2025. Photo: Jean Feguens Regala / AyiboPost