Zapping Haiti of October 24, 2026

This collection of verified updates from Haiti, dated October 24, 2026, spans public safety, migration, humanitarian support, political processes and cultural recognition across the Caribbean nation.
In the remote Chandelle locality, a rural stretch positioned between the municipal jurisdictions of Verrettes and Liancourt, the violent “Gran Grif” criminal gang launched a coordinated overnight raid between Thursday, October 22 and Friday, October 23, 2026. Preliminary on-the-ground accounts confirm multiple local residents sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the assault, and gang members intentionally set fire to a cluster of commercial rice storage warehouses, destroying critical food supplies for the surrounding community.
Separately, the Haitian National Police (PNH) issued an official public statement confirming that law enforcement units have fully reestablished state authority over Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite, following a wave of coordinated attacks by armed criminal groups that unfolded overnight between October 18 and 19, 2026. PNH officers worked systematically to dismantle makeshift road barricades erected by gang members that had completely cut off local traffic, trapped residents in their homes and blocked access to emergency services, while deploying additional patrol teams across all residential and commercial zones of the town to reinforce long-term public safety.
In a related maritime incident near U.S. territorial waters, a U.S. Coast Guard interdiction crew intercepted a dangerously overloaded, unregistered smuggling vessel drifting off the coast of Puerto Rico, rescuing a total of 66 irregular migrants. Among the group, 7 were Haitian nationals. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials confirmed that 63 of the intercepted migrants have already been processed and repatriated to their countries of origin. A formal public advisory issued by U.S. federal authorities emphasized that unauthorized maritime crossings in the region carry extreme, often fatal risks due to rough sea conditions, lack of life-saving equipment and unsafe vessel construction, and that any migrants intercepted at sea or taken into custody immediately after landing in U.S. territory will be ineligible for asylum or extended residency in the United States or its affiliated territories.
On the humanitarian front, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released its September 2026 operational report noting that the agency and its network of local implementing partners are currently managing 60 dedicated displacement shelter sites across Haiti, delivering targeted food, medical care, shelter supplies and psychosocial support to a collective 74,463 internally displaced Haitian people who have been forced to flee their homes due to gang violence and widespread instability.
In electoral developments, former Haitian President Michel Joseph Martelly, who held office from May 2011 to February 2016, formally submitted his official presidential candidacy paperwork to run under the banner of his newly formed “Debloke” political party on Friday, October 23, 2026. The filing process took place at the West-1 Departmental Electoral Office (BED Ouest-1) situated on the Route de Frères in Pétion-Ville. Martelly was accompanied by a full legal team and a crowd of several hundred cheering supporters, whose gathering along the adjacent roadways caused significant temporary traffic gridlock and blocked multiple side streets in the upscale Pétion-Ville neighborhood for several hours.
Finally, the Haitian creative sector earned major international recognition this month, as celebrated Haitian filmmaker Gessica Généus made history as the first Black woman ever to claim the prestigious New Directors Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, honored for her latest full-length feature production *Marie-Madeleine*. The award comes on the heels of a separate major victory for the film, which took home the top Best Film prize at the Villa Medici Film Festival in Rome just one month prior, in September 2026.