Quadcopter drones strapped with explosives, operated by Haitian security forces and private contractors in densely populated neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince, killed at least 1,243 people and injured 738 others in the ten months to January 2026, Human Rights Watch said on March 10, with dozens of victims having no apparent connection to gang activity.

The toll — 17 children and 43 adults not believed to be gang members among the dead, at least 49 civilians among the injured — emerged from a report that researchers built partly from social media videos showing drones in action, four of which were geolocated to the capital of the violence-stricken country. What the footage showed, the rights group said, was strikes on people who appeared neither to be engaged in violent acts nor to pose any imminent threat. Some of the attacks appeared to be "deliberate extrajudicial killings", HRW said.

One strike on September 20 in the impoverished Simon Pele neighbourhood killed nine people, including three children, as a local gang leader was preparing to hand out gifts to children nearby. A resident told researchers the explosion ripped both feet off a baby. "In the spaces where the gangs are, there are innocent people, people who raise their children, who follow normal paths," said the mother of a six-year-old girl killed in the attack.

The pace of strikes has roughly doubled. From August to October 2025, researchers recorded 29 attacks. Between November and late January the figure jumped to 57. The deadliest single strike killed 57 people.

The operations are run by a task force created by Haiti's government in 2025 that sits outside the normal oversight of the National Police and includes private contractors. Among them is Vectus Global, the firm of former US Navy SEAL Erik Prince, which deployed nearly 200 personnel to Haiti under a one-year contract. Human Rights Watch found no evidence that gangs themselves were making significant use of drones.

The UN human rights chief said in October the strikes were disproportionate and likely unlawful. The UN's Haiti office said last month it had seen no indication the deaths were being investigated. Haiti's National Police did not respond to requests for comment.

Armed groups control 90% of Port-au-Prince, killing nearly 6,000 people during 2025, UN figures show. Violence has displaced roughly 1.4mn residents, about 10% of the population, whilst nearly half of all Haitians confront acute food insecurity, including 1.2mn children under five years old.

Last month, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé became Haiti's sole executive authority after the Presidential Transitional Council transferred power following a nearly two-year tenure marked by failure to curb gang violence.