“At least 1,243 people have been killed by drone strikes in Haiti as of January 21. Drone strikes. In Haiti,” says Jonathan Katz.
Haitian security forces and private contractors working with them have conducted extensive and apparently unlawful lethal drone strikes…The strikes, at least some of which appear to be deliberate extrajudicial killings, have been carried out with quadcopter drones armed with explosives in densely populated urban areas, in some cases killing and injuring dozens of people, including children and other residents who are not members of criminal groups….At least 1,243 people were killed by drone strikes in 141 operations between March 1, 2025, and January 21, 2026, including at least 43 adults who were reportedly not members of criminal groups, and 17 children…The drone strikes injured 738 people, at least 49 of whom were reportedly not members of criminal groups. …
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti has attributed the drone attacks in Haiti to a specialized “Task Force” established by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé that is operated with support from the private military company Vectus Global. The US ambassador to Haiti has confirmed that the US State Department issued a license to Vectus Global to export defense services to Haiti….
In the September 20 attack, a drone armed with an explosive device detonated near the “Nan Pak” sports and cultural complex in the Simon Pelé neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital, where children had gathered for a gift distribution by the Simon Pelé criminal group. Human Rights Watch found that 10 people who were not members of criminal groups, including 9 children ages 3 to 12, were killed.
The number of armed drone attacks in Port-au-Prince has significantly increased in recent months, with 57 reported between November and January 21, nearly double the 29 from August through October. Over forty percent of reported killings took place between December 1 and January 21. The average number of people killed per operation is 8.8, with the most lethal operation killing 57 people.
Haitian security forces have killed fewer people than criminal gangs, though. The United Nations says that “At least 26 gangs operate in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas with ‘alarming levels of violence.'” The gangs control much of Haiti’s capital. “Some 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes and thousands more have died.” The gangs “have continued to terrorize the population by killing and kidnapping people, trafficking children, stealing at illegal checkpoints, extorting money from businesses, and destroying and ransacking public and private properties. Gangs targeted individuals perceived as cooperating with police or defying their authority. “Some victims were executed, their bodies often doused with gasoline and burned.”
Last month, drones killed dozens of people in towns across the African nation of Sudan. Weeks earlier, drones sent by the Rapid Support Forces killed hundreds of people in attacks on El-Obeid, which has around 600,000 people, and surrounding areas. In a village near El-Obeid, a drone killed 65 people at a funeral gathering.
Earlier, “a drone attack” by the RSF “hit a kindergarten in” the town of Kalogli in “south-central Sudan, killing 50 people, including 33 children,” reported the Associated Press. Then it returned to kill paramedics at the scene.
Millions of people in Sudan lost power last year due to drone strikes on a key power plant.
The Rapid Support Forces also have committed genocide against the Masalit people of western Sudan. And they slaughtered tens of thousands of the Zaghawa people after seizing the major city of El Fasher. The RSF also has kidnapped thousands of people and held them for ransom, torturing many of them.
