Two-year-old Shanna receives an IV in one of the few hospitals still functioning in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Her mother Venda is desperate to alleviate the severe malnutrition the thin young girl is suffering from.

Xena is one of 760,000 children in Haiti on the verge of famine.

Wenda was so frightened by the gang war raging in her community that she was afraid to leave her home for weeks to seek treatment for her daughter.

Now that she’s in the pediatric ward, she hopes it’s not too late for Shanna.

“I want my child to be properly cared for, I don’t want to lose her,” she said through tears.

Haiti has been gripped by a wave of gang violence since the assassination of then-President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, with an estimated 85% of the capital now under gang control.

Even in hospitals, Haitians are not immune to the fighting, which the United Nations says has killed 5,000 people this year alone, bringing the country to the brink of collapse.

The hospital’s medical director explained that the day before, police and gang members had clashed in the emergency room, leaving panicked patients.

Victims of violence are everywhere. A ward was filled with young men suffering from gunshot wounds.

Pierre is one of them.

He said he was caught in the crossfire of a street fight while returning home from get off work and a bullet tore through his collarbone.

“I think if the government was more stable and had better youth programs, they wouldn’t be involved in gangs,” he said of the young people who make up a large proportion of the groups terrorizing the capital.

In order to combat the increasing violence, the United Nations Security Council authorized the establishment of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in October 2023.

The Kenyan-led force, funded largely by the United States, deployed to Haiti six months ago with a mission to restore law and order.

While patrolling downtown Port-au-Prince, the ferocity of gang violence is evident.

Kenyan military officers drive heavy armored personnel carriers (APCs) along streets and through once-bustling, now deserted areas of the capital. Shops and houses were boarded up.

Burnt cars and debris were piled high along alleys, barricades erected by gangs to block access.

The convoy was winding its way through the ruins and was suddenly attacked by artillery fire.

Bullets struck the armor of the armored personnel carrier as Kenyan police fired back with assault rifles through muzzles on the vehicle’s walls.

After nearly an hour of back-and-forth firefighting, the convoy continued moving forward.

But soon there were signs of more horrific gang violence. A body burned in the middle of the street.

A Kenyan police officer in our APC said he suspected it was a gang member who was cornered and killed by a rival group and whose body was set on fire to send a dire warning.

The Kenyan police officers we patrol are now used to seeing this kind of brutality on the streets of Port-au-Prince, but they also tell us they are exhausted.

Four hundred police officers arrived in June but were vastly outnumbered. In July, the Haitian government estimated there were 12,000 armed gang members in the country.

Kenyans were promised additional personnel. When the United Nations authorized the mission, 2,500 troops were expected, but support scheduled to arrive in November has yet to materialize.

Despite the circumstances, troop leadership remains optimistic. Commander Godfrey Otunge is under pressure from the Kenyan government to successfully complete the mission.

The mission commander said there was “overwhelming support” for the MSS in Haiti.

“People are asking our team to expand and go to other places to provide relief,” he said.

The struggle they face is evident in the former Haitian police station, which was once occupied by a gang but has now been reoccupied by Kenyan troops.

It was still completely surrounded by gangs, and when police climbed onto the roof, they came under sniper fire.

Kenyan officials pushed back while urging everyone to keep a low profile.

Kenyan officials say some of their long-delayed reinforcements will arrive by the end of the year, bringing the total number to 1,000.

And support is desperately needed. Some areas of Port-au-Prince are tightly controlled by gangs and nearly inaccessible to police.

On one weekend in early December, nearly 200 civilians were killed by a gang in the Wharf Jérémie area.

It is estimated that as many as 100 gangs are operating in the Port-au-Prince area, with boys as young as 9 joining their ranks.

And the problem seems to be growing. The number of children recruited into the gangs has jumped by 70% in a year, according to UN children’s agency Unicef.

One of the gang leaders they gathered was Ti Lapli, whose real name was Renel Destina.

As leader of the Gran Ravine gang, he commands more than 1,000 men from his defense headquarters high in Port-au-Prince.

Gangs like his have exacerbated an already dire situation in Haiti and are known for massacres, rapes and terrorizing civilians.

Glen Canyon was notorious for kidnapping for ransom, and Tillaplee was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

Ty Rapley told CNN he and his gang members “love our country so much” but when asked about the gang’s rape and murder of civilians, he claimed his men “did things they shouldn’t have done” (to members of rival gangs) because the same thing happened to us.”

The reason the children join Glen Canyon is simple, he said: “The government doesn’t create any jobs, it’s a country without any economic activity. We live off garbage and it’s basically a failed country.”

He failed to acknowledge the crippling impact gangs like his had on Haiti’s economy. Civilians are often afraid to leave home to work and are often extorted for money.

Schools in the capital have become camps for internally displaced persons as 700,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes due to violence by groups such as Gran Ravine.

Negociant is one of those who had to seek asylum.

She sat with her five children in a small spot on the school balcony they now call home.

“Just a few weeks ago I was living in my own house,” she said. “But gangs have taken over my neighborhood.”

She explained that she left an area of ​​the city called Solino until it was also overrun by gangs and she fled with hundreds of others.

“Today I am on the run again to save my life and the lives of my children,” she said.