gang violence

A new report has found that nearly six million people in Haiti are experiencing severe hunger, with almost two million facing emergency conditions. The worsening crisis in the country of nearly 12 million is blamed on a surge in gang violence and displacement, combined with high food and fuel prices and an extreme El Niño weather phenomenon.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele plans to release some prisoners detained during his government's crackdown on suspected gang members. Families are frustrated, saying the plan doesn't fully exonerate those wrongfully convicted or compensate for the psychological and financial toll of their imprisonment. Bukele announced last week that up to 50% of the more than 90,000 people arrested could be released.

Gangs in Haiti have attacked an armored vehicle, leaving four Salvadoran soldiers unaccounted for. This marks the first major attack since an international gang suppression force began operations. The attack happened Sunday in Croix-des-Bouquets, a gang-controlled area of Port-au-Prince.

The United Nations says armed men have killed at least 47 people and kidnapped over 50 others near Haiti's capital. This attack, which occurred Sunday in Kenscoff, is believed to be one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years. A gang leader has threatened to kill the hostages if authorities harm any gang members. The attack challenges the belief that security in Haiti is improving.

A new Human Rights Watch report says drug gangs and rebel groups in Colombia are increasingly recruiting children for dangerous tasks, including piloting drones carrying explosives. The report published Monday also highlights how the groups use social media to recruit children, especially in rural areas.

Violence erupted in the central Haitian town of Petite-Rivière de l'Artibonite early Sunday morning as a powerful gang warred with a vigilante group.

Haiti's government has opened a 10-day registration period for political parties to run in an upcoming general election. It is a key step for a country that hasn't held one in more than a decade as deadly gang violence persists.

The number of sexual abuse cases being treated at a clinic in Haiti’s capital has tripled in the past four years as gang violence surges across the troubled Caribbean country.

A federal grand jury has indicted one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders — Jimmy Chérizier, best known as “Barbecue” —and a U.S. citizen for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and fund gang activities.

Federal authorities in several countries have recently nabbed several caches of weapons headed to Haiti, but armed violence continues to rise there.

Despite the many unknowns about its true size or sophistication in the United States, Tren de Aragua has emerged as a real source of concern for law enforcement in the last couple of years.

Now that Doctors Without Borders teams are back in Haiti and can again treat the burgeoning number of gang sexual violence victims, the nonprofit has launched a media campaign to raise global awareness of that horrific plague.