Haiti Declares 3-Month State of Emergency

The government of Haiti announced Saturday that it will implement a three-month state of emergency in the country's central region due to gang violence.

The measure will cover Haiti's West, Artibonite, and Center departments "to continue the fight against insecurity and respond to the agricultural and food crisis," the government said in a statement.

We're sure the Clintons and pal Laura Silsby could help by 'rescuing' 33 more Hatian children (children only) from said state of emergency.

The affected region is known as Haiti's "rice basket," which has seen gangs killing farmers or forcing them to abandon their fields as they raze nearby communities.

From October 2024 until the end of June 2025, over 1,000 people have been killed, over 200 injured, and 620 kidnapped in the Artibonite and Central departments and nearby areas, the Associated Press reports.

Gang violence also has displaced more than 239,000 people in Haiti’s central region, according to the U.N. In late April, dozens of people waded and swam across the country’s largest river in a desperate attempt to flee gangs.

On Friday, the government appointed a new interim director general to oversee Haiti’s National Police, which is working with Kenyan police officers leading a U.N.-backed mission to help quell gang violence.

André Jonas Vladimir Paraison replaces former police director general Normil Rameau, who was criticized for his struggle to contain violence perpetrated by gangs that control up to 90 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Rameau had repeatedly warned about the department’s severe underfunding.-AP

Paraison was previously the head of security for Haiti's National Palace - and was on duty as a police officer when former President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021.