A Haitian warlord has been using rap videos to expand his control over the crisis-hit country as gang violence continues to choke the capital.
Johnson Andre, also known as Izo, had been using accounts on sites like TikTok to recruit foot soldiers and sow more terror in the country, according to investigators.
Along with his ‘Five Seconds Gang’, Andre has been responsible for releasing videos that have amazed even the most seasoned officials.
On Friday, his TikTok account, which had 227,000 followers, was banned, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The outlet reported that its content involved him rapping about the murder of police officers, showing off new military-grade weapons, and ridiculing Haitian politicians.
The country’s police, the UN and the US government blame Andre for some of the current chaos and have accused him of murder, rape and drug trafficking.
Johnson Andre, also known as Izo, had been using accounts on sites like TikTok to recruit foot soldiers and sow more terror in the country, according to investigators.
Together with his ‘Five Seconds Gang’, André has been responsible for disseminating videos that have amazed even the most experienced officials.
According to a UN report, his videos have helped attract more members to his gang, who work for food, weapons, phones and money.
His resort in the capital, Port-au-Prince, also features prominently, as he counts $100 bills and drinks bottles of cognac.
The United Nations said in a report seen by the outlet that its Five Seconds gang has been the most active in recruiting child soldiers.
After being sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in December, they said their gang had been responsible for 1,035 cases of sexual violence in 2022 alone.
Videos seen by the WSJ show him saying, ‘I’ll hit them all.’ I’m going to snort cocaine and kill everyone who hates me.
Andre and members of his gang are also seen recreating a botched police raid that left an officer dead in a choreographed and edited video.
Other videos shared on his X profile and viewed by DailyMail.com show gang members wielding assault rifles and setting vehicles on fire.
His resort in the capital, Port-au-Prince, also features prominently, as he counts $100 bills and drinks bottles of cognac.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who researches armed groups in the Americas and Africa, said: ‘For others, it is a message of social justice. With Izo, it’s: “The world has gone to hell and I’m the biggest devil.”
Felbab-Brown also told the outlet that his use of social media reflects strategies that helped other organizations, including cartels, expand their footprint.
He said the videos are used to stoke fear among rivals and serve as advertising for cocaine traffickers to use Haiti as a transit hub for drug shipments.
Agents of the Haitian National Police (PNH) confront bandits after intense gunshots were heard throughout the afternoon, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 8, 2024.
People search for salvageable parts from burned cars at a mechanic shop set on fire during armed gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, March 25, 2024.
A protester burns tires during a demonstration following the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 12, 2024.
Speaking to the WSJ, United Nations human rights expert in Haiti, Bill O’Neill, said: ‘What is new is cruelty and public humiliation. I’ve never seen this before. Never at this level.’
O’Neill described how gangs in Haiti had shared rape videos online, some in front of family members.
According to a UN report that O’Neill helped write, his videos have helped attract more members to his gang, who work for food, weapons, phones and money.
Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the only Haitian-American in Congress, told the WSJ after seeing the videos: ‘This is like a professional studio that came in. My videos don’t look like that, and we have a team!
“It seems like they’re putting out these propaganda videos to recruit, to show how great it is to be part of the gangs.”
Nathalye Cotrino, who tracks gangs for New York-based Human Rights Watch, added: “We are seeing gangs acting more and more autonomously and no longer dependent on political handouts.”
“Now we have gangs that are not interested in anything political, they just continue their criminal activities.”
After being sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in December, they said Andre’s gang had been responsible for 1,035 cases of sexual violence in 2022 alone.
Police take cover during an anti-gang operation next to the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, April 8, 2024.
National Police patrol an intersection amid gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, April 8, 2024.
Andre’s YouTube page, on which he shared his music videos, was shut down last year after he received a silver plaque from the platform that caused a public uproar.
The alternative accounts are still actively sharing their content, and a YouTube spokesperson told the outlet that they are working to cancel those channels.
A TikTok spokesperson also said: “We strongly oppose violent extremism and work aggressively to identify and remove content and accounts that violate these rules.”
Current gang violence in Haiti has forced 17,000 people in the capital to flee their homes, with many of them crammed into abandoned schools.
Gunfire still echoes daily across Port-au-Prince, although gang violence has eased in some areas since gunmen began attacking key government infrastructure on February 29.
On Saturday, Haiti’s National Police said they recovered a hijacked freighter loaded with race after a shootout with gangs that lasted more than five hours.
Police said in Sunday’s statement that those responsible for the kidnapping were members of two gangs, one of which was the Five Seconds gang.
The gangs burned several police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed and raided Haiti’s two largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.
The ongoing violence forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce that he would resign once a transitional presidential council was formed.
Henry was in Kenya to push for the deployment of a U.N.-backed police force from the East African country when the attacks began and remains unable to enter Haiti.