The French medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders is calling for urgent, coordinated action by Haiti’s government and international partners to address the surging rape crisis that has deepened amid Haiti’s worsening gang violence.

A new report released Wednesday by the nonprofit medical organization says that sexual and gender-based violence have risen to alarming levels as infrastructure, public services and living conditions have sharply deteriorated. Cases have nearly tripled since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse plunged Haiti further into chaos.

The report, “Sexual and gender-based violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,” draws on 10 years of data and testimonies collected at the medical nonprofit’s Pran Men’m clinic in the capital. Since it opened in 2015, the MSF clinic has provided comprehensive medical and psychosocial care to nearly 17,000 survivors, 98% of whom are women and girls.

“The number of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence who receive care at the clinic has almost tripled from an average of 95 admissions per month in 2021 to more than 250 in 2025,” said Diana Manilla Arroyo, MSF head of mission in Haiti. “This shows how the explosion of violence in Haiti in recent years has had a direct impact on the bodies of women and girls in Port-au-Prince.”

The Pran Men’m clinic is one of the few places survivors of gang-related rape can turn to for help in Port-au-Prince, where the largest public hospital and other medical facilities have been looted, burned or forced to close because of persistent gang attacks.

“Over the past decade, the Pran Men’m clinic has borne witness to the impact of Haiti’s descent into violence and its hollowed-out health, security and judicial systems on the bodies of women and girls,” the report states. Survivors describe living in constant fear of sexual assault, often facing repeated rape and abuse by multiple assailants.

“Their voices cannot go unheard or become a mere testament to the horror of constant exposure to violence and abuse,” the medical charity wrote in the report’s foreword. “They must serve as a catalyst to mobilize the attention and resources needed to meet survivors’ needs and to place their dignity and agency at the center of all action.”

While women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected, men and boys are increasingly being targeted, reflecting shifting patterns of violence, which have become more brutal, the report says. Survivors include women and girls of all ages, as well as a growing number of people among the more than 1.4 million who have been displaced, many living in soiled encampments. Nearly one-fifth of the survivors treated at Pran Men’m have suffered multiple incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.

The findings echo those of a Miami Herald investigation, "Haiti’s Lost Generation," which documented the rise of gang-related sexual violence using United Nations data and interviews with survivors, rape treatment providers, feminists and human-rights advocates.

That investigation found that rape has become a tool used by gangs to terrorize the public, even as the crisis receives relatively little attention. Survivors grapple with shame and social stigma while facing limited access to medical care, scarce mental-health counseling and a severe shortage of emergency shelters. Assaults occur frequently on gang-controlled roads aboard public transportation, in squalid displacement camps scattered across the capital and in neighborhoods under gang control.

In some cases, survivors are subjected to prolonged captivity, repeated rape and forced “relationships.” Perpetrators, often armed with assault rifles, attack in groups, leaving survivors with profound physical and psychological trauma. Few survivors report assaults to the police. Violence has become commonplace inside makeshift displacement camps, where shacks lack doors and lighting and security are rare.

The crisis has been compounded by cuts in aid to local and international organizations responding to sexual violence, as the Trump administration reduced funding to United Nations agencies, restricted access to contraceptives for women in low-income countries and dismissed calls by European governments to elevate gender-based violence as a human-rights priority.

Though it is widely acknowledged that rapes and sexual violence are underreported, the available figures are nonetheless stark. Between January and November last year, Haiti recorded 8,194 cases of sexual violence, according to the latest U.N. report. The U.N. Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince documented 449 incidents between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, noting that collective rape accounted for 74% of cases. Sexual slavery, often linked to kidnappings and the exploitation of children by gangs, continued to be reported. Survivors included 430 women, 35 girls and one boy.

The medical charity’s study is consistent with concerns raised by partners, though the organization’s research is among the most comprehensive to date.

Among survivors treated at Pran Men’m since 2022, 57% reported being assaulted by members of armed groups, frequently during group attacks involving multiple perpetrators. More than 100 patients said they were assaulted by 10 or more perpetrators at a time.

“They beat me and broke my teeth,” said one 53-year-old survivor quoted in the report. “Three young men who could have been my children.... When I refused to sleep with them, they hit me and I fell. While I was struggling, they kicked me in the back, which still hurts months later. After raping me, they raped my daughter... and beat my husband.”

The report also highlights persistent gaps in available services for survivors. The medical nonprofit said it is often unable to refer patients to essential non-medical assistance — such as safe shelters, relocation options, or livelihood support — that are indispensable for many survivors. This situation underscores the urgent need to strengthen and sustain funding for protection services.

The aid group said it’s publishing the report out of its deep outrage at “the horrific suffering it continues to witness—suffering that should never be ignored or accepted.

“The experiences of survivors expose the devastating impact of systemic neglect and failure,” the report added. “MSF refuses to remain silent and demands urgent, concrete action to provide the strong, compassionate health and support services that have been denied for far too long.”

The widespread and escalating violence and insecurity have severely disrupted access to health care. Across Port-au-Prince, medical facilities are experiencing critical shortages of supplies, medicine and staff, and are often abandoned or destroyed.

In areas outside government control, both government and humanitarian entities face significant barriers reaching affected populations and delivering health services. These combined factors are degrading the city’s healthcare system. The latest update provided by the Pan American Health Organization for 2025 indicates that 63% of state-run inpatient healthcare facilities in Port-au-Prince are closed, destroyed or operating at partial capacity.

“We call for expanded access to comprehensive medical and psychosocial care free of charge, which can only be achieved through a sustainable increase in funding for support services,” Manilla Arroyo said. “Equally important, we call for unequivocal recognition of the widespread nature of sexual violence and its deliberate use by armed groups as a tool to control and subjugate women and girls. These are the challenges that must be addressed to empower survivors to regain control of their bodies and their lives.”

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