At the main market in Cité Soleil, the bandits have set up a pavilion entirely dedicated to the sale of stolen goods
For at least four years, armed groups have extended their hold on Haitian territory.
Beyond their political ambition displayed through the Viv Ansanm coalition, the gangs also pursue more down-to-earth objectives.
From the houses they loot, they take pots, sheets, jewelry, batteries, televisions and other everyday goods, according to half a dozen testimonies collected by AyiboPost.
These stolen objects are then sold on markets, often at ridiculous prices, according to three sources informed of the phenomenon.
At La Piste, Cité Soleil’s main market, the bandits have even set up a pavilion entirely dedicated to the sale of these stolen goods.
Two journalists from AyiboPost went to this market in the heart of the territory controlled by gang leader Micanor on April 10, 2025. They observed the sale of mostly used furniture, electronic equipment and household items.
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According to three people interviewed on site, this sales space was created around nine months ago. Since then, it has continued to be fueled by the “heists” perpetrated in the residential districts of Delmas, Nazon and Solino.
“Gangs here sell beds, wardrobes and televisions taken from the houses they looted,” says a cold drinks seller.
Another witness recalls a scene observed at the beginning of the year in Croix-des-Bouquets: a seller offered a 42-inch smart television for 2,500 gourdes. Due to the lack of a buyer, he finally decided to sell it for 1,000 gourdes. “In reality, this television is probably worth 40 times that price,” slips the witness.
To force people to flee neighborhoods, gangs shoot, make surprise raids and set fires.
Before burning everything down, they collect valuable objects which they sometimes transport in trucks.
Read also : This is how the gangs looted several P-au-P media outlets
This man, 36-year-old, owned a clothing and shoe store, located near the Sylvio Cator stadium. The small business was looted by the gangs in February 2024.
He says that his mother’s house, located on rue Charéron, in downtown Port‑au‑Prince, was also looted by bandits.
Five refrigerators and drinks intended for sale were stolen before the attackers burned down the house in March 2024.
New territories located in Delmas, Kenscoff and in the Center department were added to the list of territories that came under the control of armed gangs this year led by Jeff Canaan and Lanmò San Jou, leaders of the 400 Mawozo gang.
More than 6,000 people are also forced to flee their homes in Mirebalais. The gangs took the opportunity to extend their control over these territories and destroy the town’s police station on April 15, 2025.
At the beginning of April, a gang member was filmed in the villa of an entrepreneur specialized in insurance in Bélot, in the commune of Kenscoff. The property was subsequently looted and burned.
Renovated in 2018, the villa included a garden, a lake filled with fish and a path lined with plants. At least four armed security guards were assigned to protect it.
“It was like a movie house,” a former employee of the estate confided to AyiboPost.
To force people to flee neighborhoods, gangs shoot, make surprise raids and set fires. Before burning everything down, they collect valuable objects which they sometimes transport in trucks.
Upon their arrival, the attackers filmed their takeover, a common practice which, according to the former employee, serves, among other things, to display their frustration.
“They come from areas without electricity, living in mud, in shacks covered with rusty metal sheets. And suddenly, they discover mirrors, huge televisions, storage rooms full of provisions… Of course they are going to trash everything. »
Questioned about this phenomenon, sociologist Kesler Bien‑aime highlights the profound social inequalities and multiple injustices which reinforce the vulnerabilities of certain people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Some “sometimes take advantage of disasters, accidents or fires to steal other people’s property,” observes the sociologist, speaking of a common practice.
Haiti is one of the most unequal and corrupt countries in the world. Half the country finds itself food insecure. Extreme poverty rubs shoulders daily with a parade of armored cars, luxurious residences and ostentatious wealth, often unduly accumulated.
Over the past three years, Canada, the United States and the United Nations have collectively sanctioned more than thirty figures in the country – including entrepreneurs, a former president, former prime ministers and former parliamentarians – for corruption, relations with gangs or drug trafficking.
For Bien-aime, what is happening in the country can be interpreted as a form of national and transnational crime which, to operate in the Haitian capital and other areas, installs “a type of hierarchical chain mercenarism”.
In recent years, gangs have increasingly displayed the assets they have accumulated on social networks, notably through kidnapping and the establishment of toll booths on several roads.
Haiti is one of the most unequal and corrupt countries in the world. Half the country finds itself food insecure. Extreme poverty rubs shoulders daily with a parade of armored cars, luxurious residences and ostentatious wealth, often unduly accumulated.
According to Bien-aime, the political motives displayed by these mercenaries “in the service of a complex composed of multiple criminal actors” are due to their perception of it as a place of legitimization of their power and these accumulated assets.
Many families forced to leave fail to return to their area which has fallen into the hands of bandits.
This is the case of the young entrepreneur Eliezer Piercin, forced to flee from Avenue N Prolongée in mid-March with his family.
Piercin learned of the house fire and said he had no news of the 10,000 gourdes of provisions left there.
This gang practice of looting and reselling stolen items on the market has already been observed in markets established in their strongholds or located near their strongholds, such as at Village-de-Dieu, at the Salomon street market, in the city center, as well as at the Diquini market, in the commune of Carrefour, according to two sources aware of these facts contacted by AyiboPost.
What is happening in the country can be interpreted as a form of national and transnational crime which, to operate in the Haitian capital and other areas, installs “a type of hierarchical chain mercenarism”.
– Kesler Bien – aimé
But, according to two sources, in the context where gangs attack neighborhoods unexpectedly, some residents sometimes find themselves forced to sell some of their furniture or other items before taking refuge in other neighborhoods or leaving the capital.
“It’s hard to see people take away what you’ve worked so hard for all your life,” a resident who fled the Delmas 30 neighborhood in February, whose house was burned down by gangs, told AyiboPost.
Most victims almost take a subscription with the looters.
A 28-year-old man, who owned a bar-restaurant called “Katchou pa nou”, has been the victim of looting by gangs three times since 2023.
In November 2024, the man had to leave his premises in Sylvia Lane, in Nazon, when gangs attacked the area and looted his business.
“They took an oven, a gas cylinder, a refrigerator, a solar panel, four tables, a dozen chairs and four fans,” he tells AyiboPost.
The armed bandits’ breakages cost the entrepreneur around 150,000 gourdes.
He subsequently transferred the rest of this equipment to a premises on Avenue Christophe, before this area in turn fell into the wake of the gangs.
In August 2023, his business located on the Dalles road was already the victim of looting perpetrated by members of the Gran Ravin gang, led by Renel Destina, known as “Ti Lapli”.
“They stole my two solar panels, an oven, two batteries and fans,” the man complained to AyiboPost, preferring to remain anonymous for security reasons.
By Wethzer Piercin, Rolph Louis-Jeune & Widlore Mérancourt
Cover | Photo of three masked and armed men walking down the street.. (Source : Unknown)
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