Haiti Hires Erik Prince Mercenaries, Deploys Drones Against Gangs

Haiti's transitional government has contracted Erik Prince, founder of the private military company Blackwater, to combat violent gangs that have seized large areas of the country, including threatening the capital, Port-au-Prince. Since March 2025, Prince's team has deployed armed drones as part of an ongoing campaign, although no significant successes have been publicly confirmed. He is recruiting up to 150 mercenaries, including Haitian American military veterans, and has sent weapons shipments to Haiti, operating independently of U.S. government funding despite U.S. awareness of his activities. This private military effort aims to complement the United Nations-backed Multinational Security Support Mission led by Kenyan police, which has struggled to restore order amid escalating gang violence. Some Haitian American veterans have expressed opposition to Prince's involvement, advocating for Haitian-led solutions with local expertise and cultural understanding. The initiative reflects Haiti's desperate security situation following the 2021 assassination of its president and widespread police incapacity, with international calls for greater regional cooperation to address the crisis.