Two Catholic nuns were murdered in Mirebalais, central Haiti, as armed gangs overran the city in a wave of violence that also freed more than 500 inmates from a local prison.

The victims, Sister Evanette Onezaire and Sister Jeanne Voltaire, were members of the Little Sisters of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus congregation of nuns. Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince confirmed their deaths, calling it “a huge loss for the community.”

According to local reports, the nuns were working at a school in Mirebalais when they sought refuge in a home during the gang attacks. However, gunmen stormed the building and executed everyone inside, including a young girl.

Their deaths add to a grim list of attacks on religious figures, including the 2022 assassination of Sister Luisa Dell’Orto and the January 2024 abduction of six nuns, who were later released.

The attack Monday was part of a broader assault by the “Viv Ansanm” gang coalition, which targeted police stations, businesses, and the Mirebalais Civil Prison. Witnesses described the city as a war zone. Armed gangs also attacked the Mirebalais University Hospital, threatening medical staff and patients. The facility, one of Haiti’s most modern hospitals, serves hundreds daily. Police have yet to give the official death toll or a full assessment of the destruction caused.

In Port-au-Prince, thousands protested the deteriorating security situation on Tuesday. Demonstrators, including displaced residents from gang-ravaged neighborhoods, demanded immediate action. Haitian police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd gathered outside the Presidential Transitional Council headquarters.

A country in crisis

Gang violence in Haiti claimed at least 5,600 lives in 2023, a sharp increase from the previous year. In the first eight months of 2024 alone, more than 4,200 people have been killed and over 1,300 injured, according to Volker Türk, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Despite an arms embargo, illegally imported weapons continue to flood the country. “These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti, but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected,” said Türk.

In addition to gang-related atrocities, OHCHR documented 315 lynchings of suspected gang members, sometimes facilitated by police, and 281 cases of alleged summary executions by specialized police units in 2024. The violence has displaced over 700,000 people within Haiti, with half of them being children.

Mirebalais, a town of nearly 200,000 residents about 64 kilometers northeast of Port-au-Prince, is strategically located at the crossroads of major trade routes. Monday’s prison break mirrored a March 2024 incident in which gangs freed nearly 4,000 prisoners from jails in the capital.

Authorities suspect the attack may have been revenge for a recent weapons bust at the Belladère customs office, where police confiscated firearms, ammunition, and cash linked to gangs. Local law enforcement had also arrested several suspects with ties to notorious gang leader Jeff “Gwo Lwa” Larose just days before the attack.

Despite the deployment of a U.N.-backed Multinational Security Support mission in June, Haiti’s security crisis continues to escalate. “We are at war,” said Fritz Alphonse Jean, President of the Transitional Council. His statement underscored the growing desperation as gangs tighten their grip on the country.

One of the most shocking incidents occurred in early December when the Wharf Jérémie gang massacred at least 207 people in the Cité Soleil area of Port-au-Prince. Victims were accused of causing the gang leader’s son’s death through alleged voodoo practices. To cover up the crime, gang members mutilated and burned bodies, with others thrown into the sea, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

As Haiti’s violence continues to spiral, the world’s commitment to aiding the nation’s recovery and rebuilding will be tested. Without immediate and sustained action, the devastating toll on lives and livelihoods is set to worsen in the years ahead, observers said.