PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres visited Haiti on Tuesday, where surging gang violence has left more than 1 in 10 people homeless.
New statistics released by the U.N. reveal that 2,300 people have been killed across Haiti so far this year, with another 100 kidnapped, while 1.5 million have been displaced. Among those abducted is James Boyard, cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, who was kidnapped last week in one of the few relatively safe areas of the capital.
Guterres’ one-day visit to Port-au-Prince comes after more than 30 people were killed, injured or missing last weekend in Cité Soleil, a seaside slum, according to Cooperative for Peace and Development, a local human rights organization.
His convoy sped past a neighborhood once fully controlled by gangs that left in their wake decimated car dealerships, abandoned homes and dozens of concrete buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. A colorful bus known as a tap-tap rumbled past, its windshield peppered with bullet holes.
Graffiti scrawled on a crumbling concrete wall read: “Down with Viv Ansanm, long live the police.” Viv Ansanm is a powerful gang federation that the U.S. government designated a foreign terrorist organization. It is estimated to control 70% of Port-au-Prince.
Guterres traveled past dozens of Haitians who fled the clashes and now live in makeshift homes under large pieces of canvas strung up with frayed rope.
They are among the more than 300,000 people displaced by gang violence across Port-au-Prince — a record. Among them are more than 18,000 people who fled the Cité Soleil slum in May, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration.
“Haiti’s displacement crisis is entering an even more alarming phase,” Gregoire Goodstein, IOM chief of mission in Haiti, said in a recent statement.
Guterres’s first stop was the headquarters of the new gang-suppression force, which the U.N. Security Council approved in September. It replaces a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police that aimed to help Haiti’s National Police fight gangs but remained underfunded and understaffed. So far, Jamaica, Chad, El Salvador and Guatemala have deployed troops that number less than 1,000 to form part of the growing force, which is due to start operations in the coming weeks.
They are expected to work with Haiti’s National Police and its growing Armed Forces, with hundreds of Haitian men and a couple of women lining up on a dusty road hoping to interview to join.
Guterres then met behind closed doors with Prime Minister Alix Didier-Fils-Aimé, who is under pressure to hold elections in the country of nearly 12 million people that hasn’t had a president since Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021.
“We had a frank conversation about what’s happening in Haiti, the vision the government has for the future,” Fils-Aimé told The Associated Press after the meeting.
He said security is a priority so the transitional government can hold elections and “get back to republican rule.” Fils-Aimé added that Guterres can help with that effort by ensuring that the countries backing the gang-suppression force “live up to their engagement.”
Guterres also stopped by a makeshift shelter in a former school where dozens of the people living there crowded around him.
Forced to flee their homes after gangs shot up their community and set fire to it, some had been living there for up to four years.
“Solino is not ready,” 31-year-old Clifford Lala said of going back to his community. It was one of the last holdouts in Port-au-Prince until gangs overran it.
Guterres ducked into a hot classroom and met privately with a group of six women who decried the lack of privacy at the shelter, even to shower or use the bathroom, and said they worried about their young children.
"It’s skin-to-skin and mouth-to-mouth,” said one woman.
The shelter houses more than 1,200 people who sleep side by side, and only one meal a day is guaranteed.
“We’re going to do our best,” Guterres told the women.
Outside, a man began to slap the building’s metal siding and bellowed, “We want to go back home!” His voice grew louder and angrier as security walked into the room and whisked Guterres away.
Wendy Cejour, 26, told the AP that he and his family have been living at the school for a year and a half.
“As long as we’re alive we have hope, but … things are difficult,” he said. “We ask ... to return to our neighborhood to live better, because we don’t have a life here.”
A day before Guterres’s visit, Human Rights Watch published a letter urging him to protect the population and target the root causes of violence and human rights abuses. Guterres said he was deeply impacted by what he saw.
“What I saw will not leave me,” he said. “Each day is a fight to survive. ... The women and the children pay the highest price.”
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres greets soldiers from Chad at a base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Danica Coto)
Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, front center, walks with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as Guterres arrives to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Danica Coto)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The B-52 that crashed during a test flight at an Air Force base in California was airborne for just over three minutes before plunging to the ground at a rate nearly 10 times faster than a plane normally descends for landing, limited tracking data shows.
All eight people aboard were killed in Monday's fiery crash of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, which was taking part in a routine test mission as part of an overall program to keep the long-running aircraft flying for decades to come. It was not yet clear Tuesday what caused the plane to crash, and officials at Edwards Air Force Base said it could take up to six months to complete the investigation.
The B-52 was airborne for 3 minutes and 15 seconds, according to AirNav Systems, a flight tracking website.
Flight tracking that was available Tuesday shows the bomber turning to the northeast right after taking off and nearly completing a 180 degree turn before crashing on another runway, according to AirNav Systems. The data that comes from a system called “multilateration” doesn’t show precise altitude and speed information, but it does show the plane fell to earth at a rate of descent of 5,056 feet (1,541 meters) per minute.
The airfield remained closed Tuesday. Crews were making the crash site safe for search and recovery teams to enter, after fires flared up overnight, said Mike Paoli, a spokesperson for the 412 Test Wing at Edwards.
The aircraft was supporting a “radar modernization program,” Col. James Hayes, the deputy commander for the 412 Test Wing, said Monday. In 2025, Boeing sent a B-52 to Edwards with a modernized radar system that is key to keeping the bomber in the air through at least 2050, nearly a century after it first entered service.
A test team planned to conduct ground and flight test activities on the aircraft throughout 2026 to feed a production decision, the Air Force said in a 2025 news release. The modern Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system replaced the aircraft’s antiquated radar. It was unclear if that was the same aircraft involved in Monday’s crash.
AESA replaced 1960s radar technology and offers improved navigation and targeting capabilities, according to a 2023 news release from Raytheon, which designed the new system for the Air Force's entire B-52 fleet.
The B-52, a long-range bomber that entered service in 1955, is designed to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons. It has been used in conflicts involving the U.S. military from Vietnam to Iran.
Along with a new radar, the fleet of 76 B-52s are scheduled to receive additional upgrades, including new engines, crew compartments, conventional and nuclear communication systems, avionics and weapons. The military said the goal is to make the B-52 a complement to the Air Force’s newest strategic bomber, the B-21 Raider.
Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down at the base in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles (161 km) northeast of Los Angeles. Officials determined no one could have survived after reviewing footage of the crash, Hayes said at a news conference.
Those on the B-52 included government contractors, Boeing employees and uniformed military.
Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing, which conducts regular developmental testing of all Air Force aircraft, weapons systems, software and components before purchase by the service as well as throughout their life span. Test missions take place at Edwards daily, Hayes said.
The base is where Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager reached a speed of Mach 1.05 and broke the sound barrier in 1947.
Aviation safety experts have said their first thoughts about what might have caused the crash were about a malfunction in the flight controls or engines, but it is way too early to know. And investigators will consider a myriad of factors, including the age and maintenance of the plane.
J. Joseph, a retired Marine Corps colonel and airline pilot. said that even in a B-52 with eight engines, a malfunction can make the plane difficult to control if the pilot loses the outboard engines, and the forces pushing the plane get out of balance in a condition Joseph called asymmetric thrust. Although if there is time, the pilots can adjust the other throttles to rebalance the forces.
Heather Penney, a former F-16 combat pilot and aviation expert, said she knew one of the people who died aboard the B-52 personally -- reinforcing how tragic this crash is for the close-knit community of military aviators. She declined to name the person before officials do.
She said it is unlikely that pilot error caused this crash given the expert training and experience of the test pilots on this flight. The age of the B-52 also opens up the possibility of problems with the structure of the plane.
“The youngest B- 52 was delivered to the Air Force in 1962. That was before the Cuban missile crisis, before the first man walked on the moon, before we had personal computers,” said Penney, who is director of Studies and Research at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “These are old airplanes. They’re structurally robust, but they are old aircraft. So structural failure can’t be ruled out.”
All the modernization efforts and upgrades that have been made to the B-52s over the decades have extended the life of these planes. At some point, these bombers will have to be replaced, but for now they continue to play a crucial role for the Air Force.
“The B-52 fleet that we have today, is the backbone of America’s bomber force. It’s over 50% of our bomber force, and it can go further, have larger payload, and stay airborne longer without refueling than any of our other bombers,” Penney said. “There’s no other bomber in our force has the attributes of the B-52. It’s been a workhorse. It’s going to continue to be a workhorse.”
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press journalist Konstantin Toropin contributed from Washington, D.C.
This image taken from video provided by KABC shows law enforcement responding to the scene of an aircraft crash, Monday, June 15, 2026, near Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. (KABC via AP)
