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Haiti’s Centre Department (Plateau Central) lies between the West Departments and the Great North of the country, covering an area of about 3,487 square kilometres (about 2,166 square miles).
The communes of Saut d’Eau and Mirebalais are famous for their major religious festivals, musical events, and large religious ceremonies. People from all over used to visit the Catholic church there. Every July 16, Saut d’Eau celebrates Notre Dame du Mont Carmel (also called Vyèj Mirak Sodo), with the big activities usually starting in mid-July. Many pilgrims travel to the area to bathe in the waterfall it’s named after, pray to the saint, attend large Vodou ceremonies, and enjoy cultural events.
The department (province) has four communes, or cities, that share a border with the Dominican Republic (DR): Cerca-la-Source, Thomassique, Belladère, and Savanette. The region has a strong agricultural tradition and is known for its significant production of poultry, including chickens, turkeys and ducks, as well as livestock such as cattle, goats, and pigs.
People practice free-range farming and domestic agriculture, and you can find poultry in almost every family yard. The Centre Department is the only region in Haiti without a coastline; instead, it shares many rivers and ponds with the DR. Additionally, its position on the border facilitates trade between the two countries, although the majority of products come directly from Dominican factories.
Before 2023, this department was known for being peaceful and safe — especially when compared to the West and Artibonite departments — because it never faced attacks from armed gangs. However, by September 25, 2023, this began to change after the Mirebalais University Hospital (HUM), which was built by Zanmi Lasante, the country’s largest non-governmental healthcare provider, in conjunction with international partners, faced its first gang attack. The police and local self-defence groups were able to push the armed groups back, but before this infiltration attempt, many people fleeing violence in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince had found refuge in the department.
The situation then worsened between March 30 and April 3, 2025, when gangs operating in and around the capital launched a major armed attack against the Centre Department, specifically targeting Mirebalais and Saut d’Eau. These gangs were led by Jeff Larose (also known as Jeff Gwo Lwa) of the Canaan Taliban gang, and Wilson Joseph (known as Lanmò Sanjou) of the 400 Mawozo gang. Both of these groups belong to the criminal coalition known as Viv Ansanm (“Living Together” in English). Before setting fire to homes and farms, the attackers systematically looted residents’ personal belongings and household property. They destroyed police stations, freed prisoners, burned businesses, shot people, and looted the hospital.
Many people died in these attacks, according to reports from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The violence forced thousands of people to flee their homes and seek shelter in other communes within the department, including the cities of Hinche, Belladère, and Maissade. According to the IOM, about 147,000 displaced people fled to find safety.
Since that period, the majority of residents of communes like Mirebalais and Saut d’Eau have had to move to neighbouring areas, staying in public spaces like schools, which they use as shelters. Conditions are very difficult, with overcrowding and a lack of hygiene.
On June 5 this year, the IOM, in partnership with Haiti’s northern civil protection agency and with support from the United States Embassy in Port-au-Prince, established a relocation programme that allowed more than 350 displaced families to move from two school-based sites in Hinche to a new transit centre. Before this initiative, these families were staying in classrooms with as many as 15 other households, with up to 70 people sharing a single room.
Now, in addition to more space and privacy, they also have improved access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services. The move will allow more than 1,000 students to return to their classrooms at the beginning of the new school year this September.
One displaced woman, Marie Christiane, says that when she first arrived in Hinche, she thought she was going to die: “I left my home where I lived in good conditions, and I ended up sleeping in a school, on desks and chalkboards that we put on the floor. It hurt me deeply. Standing water collected inside the school, and the smell was unbearable. Our children kept getting sick; mosquitoes were constantly biting them. That is not a life […]; here, I can breathe fresh air. It is completely different from the school, where I was exposed to serious health risks.”
Madelene, who is also a victim of gang violence, expressed her satisfaction with the relocation, saying, “I used to sleep in an open-air hallway, exposed to the cold. Coming here was the beginning of a solution for us. We finally have a comfortable place to sleep. At the school, I did not even have enough space to change my clothes. I had to bend over just to get in and out. I am very grateful to be here and finally able to rest with dignity.”
Loukas Garanis, an IOM Field Emergency Officer, noted that the new site “is composed of 20 hangars, with 14 different, separated rooms. There are eight sanitation blocks, each equipped with three latrines and three showers. There is an open space where children can play safely. There are about 80 solar lamps to help reduce protection risks, and six big water tanks of 1,000 gallons each. There is also a big communal kitchen with one space for cooking and secure storage.”
Despite such improvements, part of the Centre Department is still occupied by armed gangs, who continue to extort the population by imposing illegal checkpoints, conducting identity checks, hijacking cargo trucks, and kidnapping, raping, and sexually assaulting women and girls. They target individuals they suspect of collaborating with the police as informants, as well as members of self-defence brigades, and journalists or influencers who denounce their acts of terror. In many cases, when they catch a suspect or someone who breaks their rules, they execute them. In some cases, even some of their own gang members are not spared this violence.
Even as these gangs continue to terrorise the population, a combination of armed self-defence groups, the Haitian National Police (PNH), and members of the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas (BSAP) and the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd’H) occupy key areas of the department, and this has, thus far, kept the gangs from taking over the entire region.
