Walls blackened by smoke, the faint crackle of dying embers, abandoned corpses, neighborhoods emptied after gang assaults, the suffocating fear of death, desperate escapes with nothing more than a bundle for luggage—this is the fabric of life for many in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Yesterday it was Solino. Today it is Nazon. As Frantz Duval, editor-in-chief of Le Nouvelliste, wrote this week, Port-au-Prince is shrinking. Lives crumble overnight like a house of cards. According to the UN, 85% of the capital is now under gang control, up from 80% previously. The cancer metastasizes as gangs revel in their atrocities, amplifying terror through carefully staged displays. Their tactics of destruction—ransoming businesses, targeting essential goods like fuel and basic necessities—paint a grim picture of a city under siege.