Drone attack in gang-controlled slum in Haiti kills at least 8 children,
injures 6 others
[September 23, 2025]
By EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Explosive drones targeting a suspected gang
leader killed at least eight children inside a slum in Haiti’s capital
and seriously wounded six others, relatives and activists told The
Associated Press on Monday, as they blamed police for the attack.
The explosions happened Saturday night in Cité Soleil, which is
controlled by Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang coalition that the U.S. has
designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
One of its leaders, Jimmy Chérizier, best known as Barbecue, vowed to
avenge the attacks, with a total of at least 13 people killed, according
to residents.
“This is my daughter,” said Claudia Bobrun, 30, as she showed the AP a
video of her 8-year-old girl lying in a pool of blood.
Tears rolled down her face as she replayed the video.
Michelin Florville, 60, said the explosion killed two of his
grandchildren, ages 3 and 7, and his 32-year-old son.
“People were running right and left,” he recalled, noting that he was
standing near where one explosion occurred.
Meanwhile, Nanouse Mertelia, 37, said she was inside her house on
Saturday night and ran out to see what happened after hearing an
explosion. Her son had left their home several minutes earlier to get
something to eat.
She found him on the ground, his leg and arm blown off.
“Come get me, come get me, please mama,” she said he told her, but he
had lost too much blood. “By the time we got to the hospital, he died.”
A question of accountability
Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network accused police of
launching two exploding drones in the Simon Pelé community of Cité
Soleil as suspected gang leader Albert Steevenson, known as Djouma,
prepared to celebrate his birthday.
The group said that Steevenson was distributing gifts to children when
the attack occurred.
Romain Le Cour, head of Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative
Against Transnational Organized Crime, said the attack raises “urgent
questions of accountability.”
“It has now been 48 hours since the incident, and the authorities have
yet to issue any official communication or assume public responsibility.
Who, ultimately, will assume responsibility for this attack: The prime
minister? The transitional presidential council? Private security
companies? The leadership of Haiti National Police?” he asked.
Le Cour said the attacks would only reinforce the gang coalition's
anti-government narrative at a critical juncture.
“They are also likely to deepen public mistrust in state institutions
and accelerate the erosion of governmental legitimacy,” he said.
Lionel Lazarre, a spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, did not
immediately return a message seeking comment.
Also killed in Saturday’s attack were three civilians and four suspected
gang members, with seven other gunmen injured, according to the human
rights group.
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Among the civilians killed was 33-year-old St-Jean Limonthard, whose
mother often worried about him working as a moto taxi driver in a
capital that is 90% is controlled by gangs.
“I prayed for him every day that he went out, and now he died in his own
neighborhood coming back from work,” said his mother Aglamoïde
Saint-Ville, 53, as she held her son's 6-year-old daughter in her lap.
Saint-Ville said her son was the head of the family.
“The child won't be able to go to school," she said. “I don’t know how
we’re going to eat since we had no savings.”
Explosive drones under scrutiny
Activists noted that a similar operation involving explosive drones in
downtown Port-au-Prince killed at least eleven civilians earlier this
month.
The human rights group said several gang members have been killed in
drone attacks since March.
“However, the drones have not targeted terrorist leaders. On the
contrary, these leaders have grown more at ease and increasingly
arrogant, even moving openly in convoys. Drones must not be selective,
and they must also ensure the protection of civilians to avoid
collateral damage,” it said.
A spokesperson for the office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé
could not be immediately reached for comment.
A new task force created earlier this year has operated outside the
oversight of Haiti’s National Police and employed the use of explosive
drones. The task force was made up of certain police units and private
contractors.
The attack comes as Vectus Global, the security firm of former U.S. Navy
Seal Erik Prince, expects to deploy nearly 200 personnel from various
countries to Haiti as part of a one-year deal to quell gang violence
there.
In June, Fritz Alphonse Jean, then-leader of Haiti’s transitional
presidential council, confirmed that the government was using foreign
contractors. He declined to identify the firm or say how much the deal
was worth.
The private contractors are expected to reinforce an underfunded and
understaffed police department working with Kenyan police leading a
U.N.-backed mission struggling to fight gangs.
The U.N.-backed mission has 991 personnel, far less than the 2,500
envisioned, and some $112 million in its trust fund — about 14% of the
estimated $800 million needed a year, according to a recent U.N. report.
On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres met with Laurent
Saint-Cyr, president of Haiti's transitional presidential council. They
agreed that “urgent international action is needed to help restore
security,” according to a U.N. statement.
Christopher Landau, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of State,
reiterated the call for a “gang suppression force” at U.N. headquarters
on Monday.
“The time for action is now,” he said. “This is not a crisis that can be
ignored or deferred.”
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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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