Self-defense groups: between citizen resistance and emerging threat

Faced with the collapse of the state and the terror imposed by gangs, hundreds of Haitians have taken up arms to defend themselves. This movement, dubbed « Bwa Kalé », initially presented itself as a legitimate popular response. But as impunity and violence become widespread, these self-defense groups are dangerously slipping towards a new form of armed anarchy, where the line between vigilantes and executioners is becoming increasingly blurred. A movement born of despair According to figures from the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), 150 people were killed and 15 injured during the third quarter of 2025 by self-defense groups or unorganized members of the population. These acts of violence are concentrated in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince (48%), but also in Artibonite (41%) and Centre (5%). In certain areas, particularly Désarmes and Kapenyen, these groups have become the only effective security forces, sometimes managing to repel attacks from gangs like Canaan or Kokorat San Ras. For many residents, they represent the last line of defense against chaos. But this popular legitimacy, born from a security vacuum, hides a much more disturbing reality. Popular justice gone astray The « Bwa Kalé » movement, which takes its name from a call for popular vengeance, quickly descended into a logic of arbitrary violence. Simple suspicions are enough for a citizen to be accused of being complicit with gangs — often without proof or investigation. On August 15, 2025, a man and a woman who came from Saut d’Eau to buy products at the Désarmes market were lynched by a self-defense group, wrongly accused of being informants. A scene that has become sadly commonplace in several localities, where fear mixes with paranoia. By claiming to administer justice, these groups reproduce the same logic of brutality and arbitrariness as the criminals they fight. Machetes, stones, and fire have become their symbols of « purification », in defiance of the right to life and the presumption of innocence. When militias become actors of chaos The danger no longer lies solely in spontaneous violence, but in the growing organization of these militias. In the locality of Jean Denis, commune of Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite, a self-defense group has set up armed roadblocks on main roads to extort residents and finance the purchase of weapons. Vehicles that refuse to pay are targeted. This deviation reflects a worrying transformation: initially defensive militias are becoming full-fledged criminal structures. This shift tragically recalls other contexts where self-defense movements, initially tolerated, eventually transformed into uncontrolled local fiefdoms. A security and moral impasse While the « Bwa Kalé » groups embody the legitimate anger of an abandoned people, their rise to power primarily illustrates the total failure of the Haitian state. By substituting themselves for the police and justice system, they further undermine the already fragile foundations of legality. The normalization of violence as a tool of protection is leading Haiti into a dangerous spiral: the weaker the state becomes, the more citizens militarize; the more they militarize, the more the state loses its legitimacy. A warning for the future BINUH, in its recent reports, warns against this diffuse militarization of Haitian society. If nothing is done to regulate or disarm these groups, Haiti could soon face not a war against gangs, but a mosaic of community armed forces vying for territorial control. Beyond the human tragedy, the « Bwa Kalé » phenomenon raises a crucial question: when does popular justice become a threat to the society it claims to defend? As long as poverty, impunity, and the absence of a state persist, the cycle of vengeance will continue to fuel violence — until no one can distinguish the executioner from the victim.