Law Enforcement Attacks Haiti Gangs With Bomber Drones
Haitian police have started a big operation in a poor neighborhood controlled by gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, also known as “Barbecue.”
Officials say several gang members have been killed in Lower Delmas, an area in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Local reports say military drones with explosives are being used in the operation.
This is the first time that law enforcement in Haiti has used attack-drones and marks a new development.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé supported the attack. He said a special task force was created just two days ago to fight gang violence.
The heavy equipment team of the Haitian National Police (PNH) was also mobilized to clear the streets of barriers, allowing the population to move around and resume their activities.
For the first time, the Haitian National Police used drones capable of dropping explosives on identified targets, a strategy that would have made it possible to neutralize several members of the gang. Asked about this new strategy, the PNH spokesperson said that in this fight against terrorists “everything is allowed”.
According to several sources, a vehicle transporting “Barbecue” was the target of an explosive drone attack. Rumors are circulating in Haiti that Barbecue was injured, but no official source has confirmed this information…
Chérizier, 47, leads Viv Ansam (“Live Together”), a group of gangs that control much of the city.
It is unclear if Kenyan police officers, who arrived in Haiti last year to help fight gangs, are taking part in this operation. Last week, a Kenyan officer was killed while patrolling with the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission.
Gang violence in Port-au-Prince has caused serious problems, including the collapse of law and order, failing health services, and food shortages.
In 2024, more than 5,500 people died due to gang violence, and over a million people had to leave their homes.
Haiti’s transitional presidential council was set up to restore democracy, but it has made little progress in organizing elections.
Source: BBC, iciHaiti.com
Haitian fans blame soccer federation for U-20 women’s early World Cup elimination
The federation hired a coach just two days before the qualifiers began and failed to book a flight for Lourdjina Etienne, the team’s star, from rejoining her teammates in France.
by Onz Chéry Feb. 26, 2025
THE HAITIAN TIMES
Overview:
Haiti’s under-20 women’s team was eliminated from the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers following a surprising 1-0 defeat to Guyana, a weaker opponent on paper. Fans claimed the team underperformed because the federation hired a new coach just two days before the qualifiers began. Fans say the new coach didn’t have time to prepare the team.
Fans saw this coming. They had no hope that Haiti’s under-20 women’s team would qualify for the World Cup. Les Grenadières did win their first two matches by at least two goals, but the team looked extremely disorganized and weak offensively. They took advantage of two weak teams, Antigua and Barbuda, beating them 3-1 and Belize, which they defeated 4-0.
After these two games, the fans conceded that Haiti would not be able to compete against stronger opponents if it made it to the next round of the qualifiers. But Haiti could not even beat an average Guyana side to advance to the final round. They were outplayed, outsmarted, outmuscled and outcoached.
Haiti’s under-20 women’s soccer team failed to advance past the first round of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, falling 1-0 to Guyana in a shocking defeat. The loss, which many fans saw coming, has renewed criticism of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF). Fans argue that poor planning, including hiring a coach just two days before the tournament and failing to secure the team’s star player’s travel, ultimately doomed Haiti’s chances. Many are now questioning the federation’s leadership, pointing to a pattern of mismanagement that has hindered Haiti’s national teams in major tournaments.
Les Petites Grenadières sat in disbelief at the touchline, anguish written across their faces. Fans mirrored those sentiments but are also angry at the Haitian Football Federation (FHF) because they feel like the players were unprepared. Plus, the team’s star player, Lourdjina Etienne, could not make the trip from Europe due to yet another administrative issue with the federation.
Danielle Legros Georges, esteemed poet and educator, remembered for her literary legacy
The former Boston Poet Laureate and award-winning writer leaves behind a legacy of poetry, scholarship, and advocacy for Haitian culture
by Guest Author Feb. 27, 2025
THE HAITIAN TIMES
Overview:
Danielle Legros Georges, an acclaimed poet, translator, and educator, passed away on Feb. 11, 2025, at her home in Dorchester, Massachusetts. A former Boston Poet Laureate and professor emerita at Lesley University, she was widely recognized for her literary contributions, including numerous poetry collections and translations. She was 60.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Danielle Legros Georges, a celebrated poet, translator, and educator, passed away peacefully on Feb. 11, 2025, at her home in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She was surrounded by her loved ones, including her partner, Tom Laughlin, and her brothers, Gérard, Bernard, and Stephan. She was 60.
A funeral service was held on Feb. 22 at Boston’s Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, followed by a graveside service at Forest Hills Cemetery.
Legros Georges was a prolific writer and champion of Haitian culture, known for her deeply evocative poetry that explored themes of identity, migration, and history. She was the author of several poetry collections, including Three Leaves, Three Roots: Poems on the Haiti–Congo Story (2025), The Dear Remote Nearness of You (2016), which won the New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize, and Maroon (2001).
Born on Feb. 14, 1964, in Gonaïves, Haiti, to Rodney Georges, an engineer, and Edmonde Legros Georges, a secondary school teacher, she spent part of her childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo before her family settled in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood. She attended St. Angela’s School and St. Claire’s High School, where she excelled in academics and track and field. A passionate dancer, she studied Afro-Haitian dance at the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts.
Legros Georges earned an undergraduate degree from Emerson College and later obtained a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Poetry from New York University. She was an active member of the Dark Room Collective, a group of Black artists and writers based in the Boston-Cambridge area. In 2016, Emerson College awarded her an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Throughout her career, Legros Georges was dedicated to education. She was a professor and director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Lesley University before retiring as professor emerita in 2023. Her passion for literature and advocacy for Haitian voices extended beyond academia.
In 2015, she was appointed as the City of Boston’s second Poet Laureate, serving in the role until 2019. She was also inducted into the American Antiquarian Society in 2024 and named a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France’s Ministry of Culture.
Beyond her own poetry, she worked extensively as a translator and editor. She co-edited Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Re-imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters (2023) and edited City of Notions: An Anthology of Contemporary Boston Poems (2017). Her translations included Blue Flare: Three Haitian Poets (2024) and Island Heart: The Poems of Ida Faubert (2021).
Legros Georges received numerous honors and fellowships from organizations such as the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Foundation, and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund.
Two Haitian soldiers, dozen residents killed as gangs seize Delmas 30
Armed gangs overrun Delmas 30, burning homes and forcing families to flee in yet another deadly assault on Haiti’s capital
by Juhakenson Blaise and The Haitian Times Feb. 26, 2025
Two soldiers from the Haitian Armed Forces (FADH) were killed in the Feb. 25 gang attack on Delmas 30 according to a preliminary, unofficial toll. The two soldiers were brothers. They were off duty at the time.
Overview:
Two Haitian Armed Forces (FADH) soldiers and about a dozen residents were killed as gangs stormed Delmas 30, torching homes and displacing families. The assault, part of Haiti’s spiraling violence, has left thousands seeking refuge in an already overwhelmed city.
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story. The Haitian Times will provide updates as more information becomes available. Last updated Wednesday, Feb.26 at 8:00 a.m. EST.
PORT-AU-PRINCE —Two soldiers from the Haitian Armed Forces (FADH) and about a dozen residents were killed in the Feb. 25 gang attack on Delmas 30, according to a preliminary unofficial toll count. The assault, which began at dawn, left the neighborhood in flames and forced hundreds to flee.
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The two soldiers, who were brothers, were off duty and not part of the contingent exchanging gunfire with gang members. This brings the number of Haitian soldiers killed in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area to three in February.
“Can you imagine two FADH soldiers are dead, and bandits filming them? This situation breaks my heart, I feel outraged,” said singer Lubin ‘Jah B’ Enock on Xafter witnessing this murder.
Two students were released early from schools in Delmas after armed gangs stormed the area in the early hours of Feb. 25, 2025. Photo by Arnold Junior Pierre/The Haitian Times
On Tuesday afternoon, displaced residents sought shelter wherever they could. Some sought refuge at La Paix Hospital in nearby Delmas 33, while others took shelter at the Ministry of Social Affairs office, also in Delmas 33. Still, many remained stranded, with nowhere to go in a city where gangs took over many neighborhoods.
Armed gangs stormed the area around 5 a.m., setting homes ablaze and gunning down those in their path. Some victims were shot dead, while others were burned alive as fires spread through the neighborhood. Families ran for their lives, dragging children through the smoke-filled streets as bullets tore through the air and the walls of their homes.
“What happened in Delmas 30 was a massacre. The gangs killed more than twenty people and burned their bodies. Some victims are unrecognizable,” a member of the neighborhood vigilante brigade said on local media.
Some collapsed in grief after witnessing loved ones fall. Others, clutching the few belongings they could carry, ran with no clear destination, desperate to escape the unfolding bloodshed.