Road transport resumes in Haiti’s northwest as gangs ‘tax’ drivers to reach Port-au-Prince

PORT-DE-PAIX — Bus drivers like Myilove Jean-Baptiste have been inactive for over three years due to gang-controlled road blockades. Now, he feels a bit relieved. 

Public transportation between Port-de-Paix and Port-au-Prince has resumed, but only under the control of those armed gangs who charge steep ransoms at unauthorized checkpoints. Drivers pay between approximately $400 and $3,000 for one-way trips—ransom fees that now determine access or danger on the 140-mile journey to the capital.

“We may travel again—but from what I saw on the road, it’s not peace of mind we’re buying. It’s a ticket through a war zone,” Manise Renard, a shopkeeper, told The Haitian Times as she arrived in Port-de-Paix from Port-au-Prince.

The suspension, which began amid Haiti’s security collapse in 2021, crippled movement and regional trade. Gangs took over key stretches of National Roads No. 5 and No. 1, halting bus and freight traffic, attacking vehicles, kidnapping passengers and setting up heavily armed “toll booths” that remain in place today.

Despite these conditions, drivers and transport operators are slowly returning to the roads—many out of economic desperation.

“It’s better to drive again than stay unemployed,” said Myilove Jean-Baptiste, a 35-year-old bus driver and native of Ouanaminthe–a border town in Haiti’s northeast. “Once we pay what they ask, we can pass without violence.”

Yet for passengers like public market vendor Dina Charles and shopkeeper Daphca Tilus, travel is still an anxious ordeal, despite feeling a sense of relief.

“Every time we stop at a gang checkpoint, we wonder if this is the time they’ll attack,”  28-year-old Tilus said, who has been making the road trip to Port-au-Prince to buy beauty products, shoes and clothes for resale for nine years. They’re armed with high-caliber rifles. We pray as drivers pay.”

Gangs control movement and economy along main roads

Armed groups such as the Ti Bwadòm affiliate of Kokorat San Ras and L’Estère’s Gran Grif gangs now control virtually all access points from northern Haiti’s provinces to the capital via national highways. They operate at will across Gros-Morne (National Road #5) and La Croix Périsse, Duvivier and Canaan (National Road #1)—strategic zones connecting the north to Port-au-Prince.

In some cases, ransoms are calculated per passenger—up to $20 per person. A full 18-seat minibus may owe $360 at one ‘toll booth’ alone before paying another $60 at three more checkpoints to reach Port-au-Prince. A driver of a 50-passenger bus pays as much as $1,100 for passage each time. Larger transport trucks carrying goods face charges between $2,000 and $3,000, with payments required at multiple gang checkpoints route.

“If we don’t pay, we risk losing the bus—or our lives,” said Jean-Baptiste, who has been serving the road for nearly 10 years now. “As long as we follow their rules, we travel safely.”

But the system is bleeding the economy. Business owners report tripling transport costs and are forced to raise prices for everything, including food, fuel and essentials, to cover losses and extortion from gangs.

“To survive, we’ve had to increase prices,” said Dieuné Marcellus, 44, and father of five. 

“Otherwise, we’d go bankrupt,” said Marcellus, an experienced distributor of groceries and soft drinks.

 “We lost two buses to gang attacks in 2021,” said Georges Hermann Joseph, manager of Sans-Soucis Tours—an autobus company that transports passengers from various northwest cities to the Haitian capital. “Our drivers haven’t worked in years. We still owe banks for loans we took before the crisis.”

The impact of Haiti’s crisis on commerce, food prices and mobility is noticeable.

The disruption has devastated northwest Haiti’s economy. Road-based trade from Port-au-Prince to regional towns has collapsed, creating shortages in basic goods. Transport services are only now resuming—with no state control over safety or pricing.

Even as buses reappear on the roads, the long-term cost is being borne by consumers.

“I paid more than $100 for a trip that cost $14-$18 in 2020 to get to Port-au-Prince,” said Renard. 

Another consequence of the multidimensional crisis is the effect on internal migration. Drivers say there’s a surge of people fleeing the capital for northern towns like Port-de-Paix, reversing the usual rural-to-urban migration.

“We fill up faster leaving Port-au-Prince than heading there,” said Jean-Baptiste. “People are escaping the violence.”

“Toll” ransoms now define Haiti’s transport sector

In the absence of government enforcement, gang rule has institutionalized extortion as a form of road governance. The fees apply equally to passenger vehicles, cargo trucks and even motorcycles—doubling for round trips.

“We follow their orders or we risk passengers’ lives,” said Jean-Baptiste, feeling weighed down. “It’s the only way to keep the wheels turning.”

Haitians across the country, like 27-year-old Miselène Agénord, said restoring basic road security is essential for economic and social recovery.

“The only way to improve life for Haitian families is to end the insecurity on the roads,” she added.

Until then, public transit in Haiti—once a backbone of regional commerce—is now defined by armed checkpoints, extortion and fear.

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