Photos | Testimonies of gang victims living with untreated injuries and trauma in Port-au-Prince

Beyond the physical injuries inflicted by armed groups, some victims live with deep psychological after-effects from which they struggle to recover

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They are hunted by gangs.

They live in temporary shelters in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince.

Months after their escape, these victims still bear visible and invisible traces of the abuses they suffered.

Many of them are living with untreated injuries and trauma without follow-up due to lack of resources, according to testimonies collected by AyiboPost during visits to three displaced persons camps.

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In May 2025, at the camp hosted by the Citizen Protection Office (OPC) on the Bourdon road, AyiboPost met two sisters, Clarena and Claudine Jean Philippe. Along with their aunt, Roselie Louissaint, they fled a gang attack on their neighborhood, Delmas 19, in December 2024.

Clarena Jean Philippe on the left and Claudine Jean Philippe in the middle, accompanied by their aunt Roselie Louissaint on the right, housed at the Office de la Protection du Citoyen (OPC) camp in May 2025.

In the wake of the tragedy, they lost their businesses, but also their health.

Clarena Jean-Philippe, approaching thirty, saw her life turned upside down.

She told AyiboPost that she has lost her sight since that day. The crackle of bullets abruptly woke her in the middle of the afternoon, at the time of the attack. Seconds later, as she tried to flee in panic, her vision suddenly went dark.

Photo of Clarena Jean-Philippe housed at the Citizen Protection Office (OPC) camp, in May 2025.

Her sister, Claudine Jean-Philippe, also present that day, was no luckier.

Met by AyiboPost six months later, in the large room of the OPC where the small family had found refuge, she indulged in long, disjointed conversations, punctuated by facial expressions and grand gestures.

According to her relatives, she has been in this situation since the attack in December 2024.

Due to lack of means, neither she nor her sister were able to consult a doctor.

Along with their aunt, the two sisters rub shoulders with dozens of other families forced to flee by insecurity and the violence of armed gangs. To get back on her feet, Clarena Jean-Philippe is forced to seek help from her aunt.

Reached by AyiboPost, neuropsychiatrist Marabishi Jasmin explains that certain traumatic events—such as an armed attack—can cause mental or psychosomatic disorders, even without direct physical contact.

According to Jasmin, biological, psychological, social or environmental factors can affect mental health, especially in people with genetic predispositions.

In these cases, according to the specialist, « recovery can be achieved in the short or medium term, depending on the specificity of the disorder that affects the person. »

Neuropsychiatrist Marabishi Jasmin explains that certain traumatic events—such as an armed attack—can cause mental or psychosomatic disorders, even without direct physical contact.

Some victims must bear the visible marks of the violence they suffered throughout their lives.

Others, beyond the physical injuries, live with the psychological after-effects of a tragedy from which they struggle to recover.

This situation comes as gangs have forced the closure of several hospitals, including Mars & Kline, the only public psychiatric care center, located in downtown Port-au-Prince.

On November 2, 2024, during a violent gang attack on the Fort National neighborhood, sixteen-year-old Lovelie Jean Baptiste was shot in the mouth.

Sixteen-year-old Lovelie Jean Baptiste was shot in the mouth.

The teenager, born in the Dominican Republic, had been living in this neighborhood, which houses the base of the Departmental Operations and Intervention Brigade (BOID), since her deportation to Haiti in 2016.

Taken urgently to a hospital in Turgeau, she received her first treatment there, at the expense of a few generous individuals. She left the care center on November 29, 2024.

Despite undergoing two operations, she has not been able to regain full use of her jaw.

Sixteen-year-old Lovelie Jean Baptiste was shot in the mouth.

At the level of his mouth, near the upper jaw, the damage from the bullet is visible: his lips, unable to close properly, reveal the inner walls of their mucous membranes and the gaping scars of the wound that now cut his face.

Sixteen-year-old Lovelie Jean Baptiste was shot in the mouth.

Sometimes, the mockery comes with the day and confronts Jean-Baptiste with his new reality as a person with a disability at the camp located at the Argentine National School Bellegarde, in Lalue.

« I’m often mocked in this displaced persons camp. Sometimes I feel humiliated, » she complains.

To avoid these episodes, she says she now wears a face mask, which she uses « even at night. »

Julien Jean-Louis, now a refugee in the displaced persons camp of the “Cité Bob Accommodation Center” in Pétion-Ville, was attacked in December 2024 in Carrefour-Feuilles.

Armed men stole two phones and 15,000 gourdes from him before shooting him in the right arm. An amputee, he says he takes his grief to the Meyotte camp, alongside other victims of insecurity.

Julien Jean-Louis, now a refugee in the displaced persons camp of the “Cité Bob Accommodation Center” in Pétion-Ville, was attacked in December 2024 in Carrefour-Feuilles.

« I can’t work like I used to. I’m now a physically handicapped person. It’s now difficult for me to make ends meet in this condition, » laments the father of four, who previously sold bread to feed his family.

Julien Jean-Louis, now a refugee in the displaced persons camp of the “Cité Bob Accommodation Center” in Pétion-Ville, was attacked in December 2024 in Carrefour-Feuilles.

« Sometimes, I can’t even afford medication when my arm is agonizing. We appeal to the government. Security must be restored in the country. We want to go home, » Jean-Louis complained to AyiboPost.

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According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes due to gang violence in Haiti.

Armed groups control about 80 percent of the capital, according to the United Nations, despite the presence of Kenyan forces in the country for more than a year.

To stem the spread of gangs and the cycle of violence, the Haitian government adopted a so-called « war budget » in April 2025, which provided for an allocation of 36 billion gourdes for the Haitian Police and Armed Forces.

But until today, security forces are struggling to contain the advance of the gangs.

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In addition to the health conditions of the people met by AyiboPost, there is the extreme precariousness of the places where they live.

In the displaced persons camp where Lovelie Jean-Baptiste is taking refuge, the unsanitary conditions exude nauseating odors for meters around.

In the courtyard, children in rags play near a few tents erected without much care, on a few wooden slats and pieces of dirty and torn canvas, in the vicinity of a mountain of bundles of rubbish which, every day, encroach further on the small spaces of activity of the displaced people.

« Sometimes the debris decomposes into small parasites. They often climb on us at night and prevent us from sleeping, » she says.

The lack of resources complicates the care of victims.

Survivors of armed attacks, living with excruciating pain requiring urgent medical intervention, report struggling to access appropriate care due to lack of resources.

Carrefour-Feuilles resident Chrislove Bertilus crashed into a wall while trying to flee her home during an armed gang attack last December. She was pregnant at the time.

Several months after moving into the Cité Bob shelter in Pétion-Ville and giving birth to her child, her left breast quickly began to swell, following episodes of intense stabbing pain.

« Doctors are recommending emergency surgery, but I can’t afford it. I don’t know what to do, » she complained to AyiboPost.

By : Jean Feguens Regala & Junior Legrand