Haiti’s most violent neighborhood has been branded the most dangerous place to live on Earth as gang violence forces many to flee their homes.
The Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, has been controlled by gangs for years, resulting in brutal violence, extortions and kidnappings.
Many neighborhoods have become warzones as rival gangs fight for supremacy in a country where government failures have proved disastrous.
However, Cite Soleil is regarded by most as Haiti’s most dangerous neighborhood where gangs fight on the streets in public areas.
The United Nations has previously described it as the most dangerous place on Earth. Those that remain there live in extreme poverty with basic infrastructure such as sewers, electricity, hospitals, and schools are scarce or non-existent.
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It is located next to the western end of the runway of Toussaint Louverture International Airport, which was recently stormed by gangs, meaning outgoing Prime Minister Ariel Henry still can’t return to the country.
Travel YouTuber Drew Binsky, who has four million subscribers, traveled to the area and said: “I am completely messed up in the head by what I just experienced.”
In a video, he said it was “by far the most dangerous place in the world”, adding: “I thought Mogadishu in Somalia or Kabul in Afghanistan had the crown but Port-au-Prince in Haiti is messed up.”
Another YouTuber, Indigo Traveler, who has amassed nearly two million subscribers traveling to dangerous parts of the world, went to Port-au-Prince in 2022.
He said Cite Soleil “reminds me of warzones I have been to in the Middle East”, and continued: “There are buildings that look like a full-blown warzone, they could be in Syria. They look like they have been bombed.”
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When driving through the neighborhood, he said: “This is one of the most desperate places I have ever been. Flooding, sewage, destroyed houses, riddled with weapons.
“I have been to conflict zones all over the world, slums in all kinds of countries in Africa and Latin America. This is the most desperate, hellish place I have seen. I can’t really process this at the moment.”
In July 2023, journalists from ABC News entered the neighborhood to ask locals what life was like there.
Evens Brelhomme, a charity worker who grew up in Cite de Soleil, said: “There’s shootouts here sometimes. Sometimes the gangs will climb the walls and use the school as a base. Sometimes the police will do the same.”
He showed reporters bullets that had been shot through classrooms, adding that many people there find bullets in their backyards.
Michael Francois, a 12-year-old student, added: “When I hear the shooting, I feel like I am nothing and I feel very weak. I go under my bed or try to close my ears to not hear it.”
In November, women and children had to be rescued when criminals from the coalition of gangs called G-Pep surrounded a hospital.
In 2022, over 200 people were killed in just 10 days in Cite Soleil as gang violence ramped up after the assassination of the President in 2021.
A youth leader in the neighborhood told the BBC after the killings: “I go to bed and wake up to the sound of gunfire, which is very stressful. But even if the shooting terrifies me, I try to use the rhythmic sounds of bullets being fired to lull me to sleep; this is the only way I can survive.
“Sometimes you can use music to escape the constant shooting noise, but not when shots are being fired so close to your house; it’s just too loud.”
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