The Haitian government declared a state of emergency yesterday for the departments of West, Artibonite and Center. With the measure, Port-au-Prince aims to regain control of gang violence while curbing the agricultural and food crisis in the so-called "rice basket" area.
The toll of violence in the central region is heavy, according to the UN, between Oct. 2024 and the end of June 2025 in Artibonite, Centre and surrounding areas more than a thousand people have been killed, hundreds kidnapped and more than 239,000 residents displaced. Villages were burned, farmers displaced and crops destroyed a direct threat to local food security. UN reporting from the second quarter of 2025 also paints a nationwide picture of mass violence, with killings, kidnappings and sexual violence as instruments of terror.
In the security architecture, the top has been replaced, as André Jonas Vladimir Paraison succeeds Normil Rameau as interim chief of national police, following criticism that gangs have gained a preponderance in the capital. Paraison previously headed palace security and was in office during the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
In parallel, a UN-backed, Kenyan-led mission is trying to restore order. The deployment remains smaller than ever intended and faces resource constraints; about three-quarters of the 1,000 officers deployed are Kenyan. Regional allies have been pushing for additional funding and upgrading the mandate for months. Businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr has been appointed chairman of the transition council, tasked with organizing elections for Feb. 2026. The road to that is precarious because gangs' hold on Port-au-Prince is still estimated by several observers to be around or above 85-90 percent.
Gang violence in Haiti shows how quickly security vacua arise in agricultural regions and logistical hubs and then disrupt the food chain, fuel flow and basic services. Suriname must therefore be alert to three vulnerabilities, and these are shifting smuggling routes going by river and sea; the pressure on border and port control from potential irregular migration flows and the temptation for criminal networks to hijack existing informal economies once administrative capacity presence becomes locally diluted. These risks call for early "hardening" of critical infrastructure (ports, fuel depots, telecommunications), tighter information sharing with CARICOM/French Guiana on arms, human trafficking and financial flows, and scenario-driven humanitarian preparedness in case regional spillover occurs. The tactics are simple, but above all it requires political will. Think in terms of the book The Art of War and analyze the playing field strategically and anchor interdiction, surveillance and prosecution in an operational chain, linked to food security policy and disaster response. Implement cybersecurity protocols and maintain permanent preparedness, if you don't do that as a government, a crisis may force you to do it anyway, so be ahead of the situation.
