Haiti Schedules First Election in a Decade for December
Haiti’s electoral council scheduled a presidential election for December with a runoff in February, after plans to hold the vote in August were postponed over security concerns; Haiti has not held elections since 2016 (Reuters).
Supreme Court Lets Trump End Deportation Protections for Haitians
The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end legal protections for more than 350,000 Haitian migrants with temporary protected status (Reuters).
Haitian Children Jailed for Eight Years Without Going to Court, UN Official Reports
Children in Haiti have been jailed for eight years without seeing a judge, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Vanessa Frazier told a Security Council meeting; last year, the UN confirmed 2,088 grave violations against children, including killing, maiming, abductions, recruitment by gangs, and sexual violence (Reuters).
United States Extends Work Permits for Haitians With TPS
The Trump administration extended work permits for hundreds of thousands of immigrants with temporary protected status from Haiti and six other countries; temporary protected status for Haitians will now expire on July 24 (Reuters).
UN Secretary-General Visits Haiti
In a one-day visit, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres met women and men whose lives have been affected by criminal violence in Haiti, which continues to experience the most severe humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, with 6.4 million people requiring humanitarian assistance (UN)
Guterres also visited the headquarters of the new gang-suppression force, which the UN Security Council approved in September 2025 to help Haiti’s National Police and Armed Forces fight gangs (AP)
Senior Haitian Security Official Kidnapped in Port-au-Prince
A senior government and police official was kidnapped in Port-au-Prince—the highest-ranking abduction in years—marking a significant escalation in the targeting of senior officials in Haiti (Reuters)
Uncertain Election Calendar
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said in a radio interview that Haiti was not secure enough to hold elections in August as planned; he suggested narrowing the candidate field before the vote (Reuters)
The country has been led by a series of interim officials since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse; the August elections would have been the first since 2016 (Al Jazeera)
House Bill to Protect Haitian Immigrants
Ten House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a bill extending temporary deportation protections for Haitian migrants (AP)
The bill’s fate in the Senate is uncertain, and the White House has said Trump would veto it (NPR)
Haitians are one of several groups whose deportation protections the Trump administration has sought to end in his second term; a Supreme Court decision on the Haitians’ status is expected in the coming weeks (NYT)
Kenya Rejects UN Findings of Sexual Abuse by Officers in Haiti
Kenya has disputed a UN Human Rights Office report that substantiated four allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by members of the Kenyan-led multinational security force in Haiti, with Foreign Minister Mudavadi asserting that Kenya’s own inquiry found the claims unsubstantiated (Reuters)
UN Report Confirms Abuse Allegations Against Gang Suppression Security Force
The United Nations substantiated four cases of sexual exploitation and abuse involving the Kenyan-led Gang Suppression Force in Haiti last year; officials referred these findings to the mission’s leadership for remedial action, as the UN lacks direct jurisdiction because the operation is not a formal UN mission (Reuters)
Foreign Gang Suppression Force Lands in Haiti
The first foreign contingent for a United Nations-backed gang-suppression force has arrived in Haiti, marking an initial step in efforts to address escalating violence; a team from Chad, along with special representative Jack Christofides, has deployed to Port-au-Prince at the Haitian government’s request, though further details on the mission remain limited (AP)
Gangs Continue Attacks in Breadbasket Region
After withdrawing from Jean-Denis, Gran Grif gang fighters repositioned to nearby Pont Benoit and attempted to advance on Marchand Dessalines, roughly twelve miles north; allies from the Kokorat San Ras gang were seen on social media distributing cash to residents in Marchand Dessalines, as locals warned that self-defense brigades lacked the firepower to repel attackers who retreated during the day but resumed shooting and burning buildings at night (Reuters)
Gang Violence Erupts in Jean-Denis Neighborhood
The Gran Grif gang rampaged the neighborhood of Jean-Denis in Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite early Sunday, burning homes and leaving bodies strewn across streets following a clash with a local vigilante group; the group, which is designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, is the region’s largest gang and is responsible for eighty percent of civilian deaths in the Artibonite region (AP)
A human rights group reported that at least seventy were killed and thirty injured in the attacks, far exceeding the official estimates that placed the death toll at sixteen (Reuters)
United States Offers $3 Million Reward Targeting Haiti Gangs’ Finances
The United States offered up to $3 million and possible relocation for information on the financial networks of Haiti’s Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif criminal groups; Washington has designated both gang coalitions, active in Port-au-Prince, Artibonite, and central Haiti, as terrorist organizations (Reuters)
Chad’s Reinforcements in Haiti
Chad will send eight hundred members of its security forces to Haiti this year as part of an international force to combat violence in the country, an unnamed Chadian police official told Reuters (Reuters)
The UN Security Council approved the mission last year, though full details of its composition have yet to be publicly confirmed (UN)
Some Kenyan officers from the current, smaller Kenyan-led mission in Haiti returned to Nairobi earlier this week (Miami Herald)
UNICEF Warns of Increased Child Recruitment by Armed Groups
A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund warned that the recruitment of children by armed groups tripled last year; the surge comes as gang violence has displaced over 1.4 million people, over half of them children, while poverty across Haiti has also deepened (AP)
Mandate for Transitional Presidential Council Expires
The transitional presidential council transferred acting executive authority to Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, whom the United States has endorsed; the council’s nearly two-year mandate was originally designed to hand over power to the victor of new elections, but those have been repeatedly delayed (NYT)
Haiti has not had an elected president for almost five years (France24)
Heavy Gunfire Reported in Croix-de-Bouquets
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti issued a security alert advising U.S. citizens of ongoing security operations north and south of the embassy in Croix-de-Bouquets and reported heavy gunfire in the area (U.S. Embassy in Haiti)
Sexual Abuse Cases Triple in Haiti
Doctors Without Borders reported that sexual abuse cases treated at its Pran Men’m clinic in Port-au-Prince have tripled over four years, with many victims attacked by multiple armed gang members as violence continues to surge (AP)
Visa Bans for Haitian Officials
The United States is revoking visas for two members of Haiti’s transitional leadership council and their families for allegedly supporting gangs, the State Department said without naming the individuals (State)
The measure followed reports of infighting within the transitional council last week (Reuters)
Transition Turmoil in Haiti
The United Nations special envoy for Haiti said that a UN-approved international force of more than five thousand troops should reach full strength by this summer (Reuters)
His announcement came amid reported infighting in the country’s transitional leadership council, whose mandate expires early next month (Le Nouvelliste)
The United States, Canada, and the United Nations all issued statements of concern about internal discord among the council (State;Canadian Embassy Haiti;UN)
Gang Rift Triggers Deadly Clashes in Port-au-Prince
A splinter group from the Viv Ansanm gang launched an attack in Bel-Air, killing at least forty-nine people, including civilians and ten child recruits, and executing a local gang boss; the fighting has destabilized Viv Ansanm’s internal hierarchy and raised fears of accelerated gang warfare (AP)
Kenyan Police Surge in Haiti
Over 200 officers deployed to Port-au-Prince, bringing the multinational security mission to roughly 980 personnel and marking its first expansion since the UN authorized its conversion into a larger Gang Suppression Force in September; fundraising continues to lag, however, with the UN security fund holding $113 million of the $800 million annual requirement (AFP)
New National Security Strategy Prioritizes Western Hemisphere
Trump’s new strategy devotes the bulk of its attention to the Western Hemisphere, where it aims to reduce migration, fight crime, and preserve access to critical supply chains; it reasserts the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, rejecting external influence in the region (White House)
Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appealed for additional international aid to support efforts to stabilize Haiti, as he praised Kenya’s security role during a meeting with Kenyan President William Ruto in Washington (AP)
Haiti’s Planned National Election
The transitional presidential council approved a long-delayed electoral law, enabling publication of an official timetable for the country’s first general election since 2016; authorities aim to begin voting in 2026 despite ongoing gang violence and government instability (AP)