Published TUESDAY, December 16, 2025: 'LOST GENERATION: Haiti's Gender Based Violence Crisis' Pictures by ZUMA Press represented Miami Herald's photographer Jose Iglesias and story by staff writer Jacqueline Charles: As heavily armed gangs take over more and more territory in Haiti, one group of victims has been all but ignored: The thousands of women and girls who have suffered sexual assaults as the gangs use rape to terrorize the country's population. A Miami Herald investigation into the alarming rise of Haiti's gang-related sexual violence shows that women and girls are disproportionately affected, yet the crisis receives relatively little attention. In some cases, survivors are subjected to prolonged captivity, repeated rape and forced 'relationships.' The perpetrators, armed with assault rifles, often attack in packs, leaving survivors with profound psychological scars. Welcome to 'LOST GENERATION: Haiti's Gender Based Violence Crisis'
© zReportage.com Issue #1018 Story of the Week: Published TUESDAY, December 16, 2025: 'LOST GENERATION: Haiti's Gender Based Violence Crisis' Pictures by ZUMA Press represented Miami Herald's photographer Jose Iglesias and story by staff writer Jacqueline Charles: As heavily armed gangs take over more and more territory in Haiti, one group of victims has been all but ignored: The thousands of women and girls who have suffered sexual assaults as the gangs use rape to terrorize the country's population. A Miami Herald investigation into the alarming rise of Haiti's gang-related sexual violence shows that women and girls are disproportionately affected, yet the crisis receives relatively little attention. In some cases, survivors are subjected to prolonged captivity, repeated rape and forced 'relationships.' The perpetrators, armed with assault rifles, often attack in packs, leaving survivors with profound psychological scars. Welcome to 'LOST GENERATION: Haiti's Gender Based Violence Crisis'

'BEBE' was 16 when she was raped and impregnated while getting water from a well on the eastern edge of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Forced to have the child, she has rejected him and remains traumatized by her attack. As heavily armed gangs take over more and more territory in Haiti, one group of victims has been all but ignored: The thousands of women and girls who have suffered sexual assaults as the gangs use rape to terrorize the country's population. (Image Credit:
© December 12, 2025, Port-au-Prince, Haiti: 'BEBE' was 16 when she was raped and impregnated while getting water from a well on the eastern edge of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Forced to have the child, she has rejected him and remains traumatized by her attack. As heavily armed gangs take over more and more territory in Haiti, one group of victims has been all but ignored: The thousands of women and girls who have suffered sexual assaults as the gangs use rape to terrorize the country's population. (Image Credit:

Women and girls are just as vulnerable to sexual assault in displacement camps as they are in gang-controlled neighborhoods. Abandoned by her mother, this 13-year-old girl was exploited as a domestic worker in a camp in Port-au-Prince and subjected to sexual violence. This year, humanitarian organizations have reported more than 7,400 cases of gender-based violence in Haiti.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

MARLENE, 52, a mother of four, was dragged and beaten by several armed men who raped her. She later found out she was HIV positive from the assault, which has left her living on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Rape is not a new phenomenon in Haiti, where sexual violence against women and girls has long been used as a battlefield tactic during periods of political instability. But unlike in years past, when such violence went mostly hidden, that isn't the case today.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

Women and girls have become just as vulnerable to sexual assaults in the country's displacement camps as they are in neighborhoods controlled by gangs. Abandoned by her mother, this 13 year-old was exploited as a child servant while living in a Port-au-Prince camp, and sexually assaulted.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

'JUDITH' 26, became pregnant after armed men stormed her Port-au-Prince neighborhood in 2022 and raped everyone inside her home, including a 7-year-old child. She now lives on the streets with her son, whom she gave birth to a year later and has developmental issues.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

'JUDITH' 26, became pregnant after armed men stormed her Port-au-Prince neighborhood in 2022 and raped everyone inside her home, including a 7-year-old child. She now lives on the streets with her son, whom she gave birth to a year later and has developmental issues.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

'YANICK,' 38, was raped and beaten over two hours when she and other women were forced off a passenger bus in Arcahaie in Haiti's West department. She became pregnant from the assault.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

A woman holds her baby at a displacement camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for people who have been forced to flee their homes by gang violence. Assaults are also becoming commonplace inside the makeshift displacement camps where shacks have no doors, and lighting and security are luxuries.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

Displaced residents of Port-au-Prince line up to get medical attention at Ecole National Joseph C. Bernard DeFreres displacement camp. More than 1.4 million Haitians have been forced to leave their homes this year due to gang violence according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This marks the highest figure ever recorded in the country and represents a 36 per cent increase since the end of 2024.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

In March 2024, armed men broke into the home of 15-year-old MICHELINE on the eastern outskirts of Port-au-Prince. They raped her stepmother and killed her father in front of her. They then held her captive for five days before she and other girls managed to escape. More than a year after the March 2024 ordeal, she recalls the horror, but with help of psychologists and one of the few rape shelters in Haiti, the 15-year-old says she is ready to take back her life.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

At 14 months old, GAEL is being cared for by his grandmother after his mom rejected him. The baby boy was born by caesarean section because his teenage mother's body was too frail for a natural delivery. When doctors tried handing him to her, she averted her gaze and refused to hold him. ''Give him to my mother,'' she said.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

LAMERCIE CHARLES-PIERRE, a women's rights advocate, runs one of the few shelters in Haiti for girls and women who survive rape. She founded 'Oganizasyon Fanm Vanyan an Aksyon' (Strong Women in Action Organization) in 2008. The center, a UNICEF partner, was forced to relocate to Petion-Ville last year after gangs took over the group's neighborhood. The new location can't meet the growing demand for services.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

From left to fight, Dr. HARRY THEODORE, an obstetrician-gynecologist, who opened the rape treatment center at GHESKIO more than 20 years ago and Dr. BERNARD LIAUTAUD, a co-founder of the medical clinic and HIV/AIDS research center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. GHESKIO is a Haitian-led, Haitian-run healthcare and research organization.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

A rare anti-rape billboard on a street in Petion-Ville, Haiti, demands that the rights of women and girls be respected. As heavily armed gangs take over more and more territory, including almost all of the capital of Port-au-Prince, one group of victims has been all but ignored: The thousands of women and girls who have suffered sexual assaults as the gangs use rape to terrorize the country's population.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

Haiti-based GHESKIO was founded in 1982 as a medical center and research clinic exclusively dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Its mission has since expanded to treating other illnesses, and providing treatment to gender-based violence survivors, including women and girls raped by armed gangs.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

Dr. VANESSA ROUZIER, director of research at Haiti's GHESKIO medical center in Port-au-Prince, speaks about the ongoing healthcare challenges amid the current security crisis. Behind her are Drs. PATRICE SEVERE and RODNEY SUFRA.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

People go about their day at a displacement camp in Leogane, about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The camp shelters Haitians who have been forced to flee their homes by gang violence. A Miami Herald investigation into the alarming rise of Haiti's gang-related sexual violence shows that women and girls are disproportionately affected.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire

GUERDA became pregnant with her attackers baby after she was gang raped in November 2022 during an armed attack in Source-Matelas, a farming community north of Port-au-Prince. She cares for the child by scrubbing pots on the streets of the capital. This year, humanitarian organizations have reported more than 7,400 cases of gender-based violence in Haiti between January and September, an average of 27 cases each day, according to the U.N. Population Fund.
© Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire