Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
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Pourcine Pic Makaya (Agenzia Fides) – The mandate of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT), created in April 2024 following an agreement between the country's main political and social forces and chaired by Laurent Saint-Cyr, ended on February 7. Currently, executive power in this Caribbean nation, which has been without a president since 2021 following the assassination of Jovenel Moïse (see Fides, 8/7/2021), is now under Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who focuses his administration on “Security, political dialogue, elections, and stability.” However, this transition has further destabilized the political and social climate in Haiti (see Fides, 13/11/2024). Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for August 30, 2026.
According to the latest report from the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), at least 5,915 people were killed and 2,708 injured in 2025 due to gang violence that controls numerous areas and activities in the country. In the last quarter of 2025 alone, the violence left at least 1,523 dead, 806 injured, 145 kidnappings for ransom, and 400 victims of sexual abuse. The United Nations also warns of an increase in violence against women in reception centers for internally displaced persons. The majority of the population, especially internally displaced persons, lacks access to adequate sanitation facilities.
In this context of violence and a growing humanitarian emergency, Father Massimo Miraglio, a Camillian missionary and parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in the small mountain community of Pourcine Pic Makaya, told Fides about the population's continued efforts despite the precarious and difficult conditions. “The situation in the last ten days has been complicated,” he confirmed. “Heavy rains and low temperatures make daily life difficult, the roads are impassable, and we are isolated from the rest of the region. Internet access is very limited. Even so, people continue, with great sacrifice, preparing the land for sowing at the end of February.”
“Despite everything, we are continuing, albeit sporadically, with the primary and nursery schools, and with the adult education center, which closed on December 17 for exams and the Christmas holiday (see Fides, 22/12/2025). In recent days, I gathered the teachers of the literacy school for a review meeting and to distribute some school supplies.”
The United Nations Security Council decided to extend the mandate of BINUH for another year, until January 2027, to coordinate humanitarian aid efforts. Gangs operating in areas under their control in Port-au-Prince, home to more than one million people and approximately 300,000 displaced by violence, have continued to commit serious abuses, including murder, kidnapping, extortion, sexual violence, child trafficking, and property destruction. In rural areas near the capital, such as the departments of Artibonite and Centro, gangs carried out indiscriminate attacks in numerous towns and villages to consolidate and expand their territorial control.
BINUH urges the international community to “keep Haiti on the international agenda and provide adequate financial and human support to ensure the full deployment of the Gang Suppression Force (FRG),” as agreed by the UN Security Council on September 30, 2025. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 10/2/2026)
