--- title: "Police Drones in Haiti Have Killed More Than 1,000 People" description: "Official drone operations in Haiti are responsible for at least 1,243 deaths in Port-au-Prince over the last year." date: "2026-03-14" modified: "2026-03-14" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/police-drones-haiti" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Drones" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" --- # Police Drones in Haiti Have Killed More Than 1,000 People ![Three women dressed in white are mourning beside a large banner with a photo of a young girl and the name "Nelson Samira." One woman is wiping tears with a cloth, another looks upward with a somber expression, and the third is touching the banner near the girl's face.]() *Clarens Siffroy / AFP via Getty images* With all eyes on West Asia as the US and Israel unleash [devastating]() [air strikes]() on Iran, another deadly conflict is already well underway: the political crisis in Haiti. According to a [new report]() by Human Rights Watch and [flagged by *ABC News*](), drones controlled by Haitian security forces and private military contracts have killed at least 1,243 people between March 1, 2025 and January 21, 2026. Though the ongoing drone attacks are said to be part of a [protracted campaign]() to reign in gang activity, there are at least 17 children counted among the dead, as well as 43 adults who are confirmed to have been civilian non-combatants. As the chaos of the skirmishes has mostly unfolded over the densely populated capital of Port-au-Prince, the number of innocent victims is only likely to increase — both as civil society groups gain a fuller accounting of the civilian dead, and as further violence rocks the Caribbean city. Since 2025, Human Rights Watch found, authorities in Haiti or their mercenaries have resorted to using manually-operated quadcopter drones equipped with explosives to target suspected militants. A reported 139 armed drone attacks have taken place over the past year, the most lethal of which claimed 57 lives. "Dozens of ordinary people, including many children, have been killed and injured in these lethal drone operations," said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch in the report. "Haitian authorities should urgently rein in the security forces and private contractors working for them before more children die." Per the report, evidence shows Haitian police repeatedly attacking vehicles as well as groups of people with suicide drones. While some of the targets of these attacks are armed, Human Rights Watch found no evidence of drone attacks on people that pose an immediate threat to civilian lives. "These videos bolster the impression that many of the drone attacks are attempts to target and extrajudicially kill people, rather than a law enforcement response that might justify the deliberate, lethal use of force," the report reads. Since August of 2025, Blackwater founder and prominent Donald Trump donor Erik Prince has helped deploy hundreds of private mercenaries to Haiti, [*Al Jazeera* has reported](). In addition to supplying personnel, Prince has acted as a [key advisor]() to the drone assassination task force responsible for the devastation, which has drawn condemnations from human rights groups for suspected violations of [international law](). Blackwater is a private military company responsible for the [Nisour Square Massacre]() in Iraq, a shooting which left 17 civilians dead. (The four contractors responsible were [pardoned by Trump]() during his first stint in the Oval Office.) Evidently, Prince is now exporting that same carnage to Haiti — this time with drones — furthering a history of [heavy-handed US meddling]() in the affairs of the beleaguered Caribbean nation. **More on drones:** *[SpaceX Angling for Military Contract to Produce Drone Swarms]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()