When documenting violence in Haiti, you find bodies, but also ways in which people continue to live

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Violence permeates every fiber of Haitian society. It used to remain on the outskirts of the capital, targeting the poorest, but now everyone – from street vendors to doctors to school children – is under its thumb.

Still, people find ways to continue living.

For the first half of 2024, Associated Press photographers documented how violence affected the capital, Port-au-Princeand what people’s daily lives are like, going to work, school and shopping.

It has become increasingly common to see victims of violence scattered across busy streets.

You see people on motorcycles passing bodies in the middle of a road or going around them on sidewalks. Some look at the bodies; others just stay the course. It is also common to see dogs or other animals gnawing on the remains of a body abandoned on the street.

Every day, gunfire scatters Haitians who flee the streets and hide behind a wall or column of a nearby building for protection as gangs fight for more territory.

Gang violence displaced more than half a million peopleforcing tens of thousands of people to huddle in makeshift shelters, including schools.

Still, you see people from children to the elderly finding moments of hope, smiling, laughing, playing, studying. There are moments of calm, albeit brief, like when a child rested his head on his mother’s lap while fixing his hair in a shelter.

Haiti has been under siege by violent gangs that control 80% of the capital and whose tentacles extend beyond Port-au-Prince.

The country now finds itself at a crossroads, as it hosts the fourth major foreign intervention in its history: a UN-supported mission led by Kenya which will soon be joined by personnel from countries such as the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica, totaling 2,500 police officers and soldiers.

Haitians hope to be able to return to their normal routines and free themselves from the shackles of gangs that have killed, raped and injured thousands of people in recent years.

Haiti is also preparing for hold long-awaited elections as it slowly emerges from years of political turmoil that included the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in April, and the inauguration of a new prime minister and a transitional presidential council.