Sixteen Years After Goudougoudou and the Long Shadow of Our Disasters

Sixteen years after the 2010 earthquake, the collective failure is undeniable. There is neither a memorial worthy of the name nor a presidential palace. Nor is there a cathedral in the Haitian capital. Amid the ruins of the earthquake, in the coastal neighborhoods of old Port-au-Prince, the conditions for another catastrophe were incubating: the earthquake of gangs.

Roberson Alphonse
12 Jan 2026 — Lecture : 4 min.
Sixteen Years After Goudougoudou and the Long Shadow of Our Disasters

Une vue de la Grand-Rue (Port-au-Prince) au lendemain du séisme du 12 janvier
Photo : Photo Foto

It is a day in January whose year is not always mentioned. It has been that way for 16 years, since that Tuesday when, in 35 seconds, everything collapsed. The ground danced beneath our feet. The rumble of the seismic waves accompanied the sound of the collapse of places of life. The silence before the screams, the blanket of dust over the sky of Port-au-Prince, the alert… and that Himalayan pile of corpses as bodies were pulled from the rubble here and there.

Death, mocking, had its tempo, its designs. By cruel chance, it s

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