The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that the humanitarian crisis in Haiti continues to worsen, largely due to ongoing violence. According to an OCHA update on Friday, more than 700,000 people are displaced in the country, more than half of whom are children, with the latest violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, displacing an additional 12,000 people in recent weeks.
For the past three years, Haiti has been under attack by armed gangs that control or influence 80 to 90 percent of Port-au-Prince and are spreading to rural areas and other towns. According to the latest figures documented by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), nearly 4,900 people were killed between January and September this year.
The country is facing a massive humanitarian crisis as a result of the violence. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), more than half of the country's population - 5.4 million people - are struggling to feed themselves.
For the first time since 2022, there are famine-like conditions in some areas where displaced people live. At least 6,000 displaced people in shelters in the capital are facing catastrophic levels of hunger, while 2 million people in the country are in emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4), facing extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition and high levels of disease.
The latest IPC report covers the period from August 2024 to February 2025 and includes a projection for March to June 2025. With approximately 5.54 million people facing acute hunger, the situation is not expected to improve during the forecast period, as humanitarian food assistance is not expected to meet the needs of the population.
As of November, some 703,000 people are internally displaced, an increase of 22 percent since June, according to the latest data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). More than half of those displaced are children. Haiti is now the country with the largest number of people displaced by crime-related violence in the world.
The situation is being exacerbated by the forced return of Haitians from abroad. The UN humanitarian office said Friday that some 27,000 Haitians were repatriated in October alone, the highest monthly total ever recorded.
According to an OCHA situation report released Friday, October was also marked by continued armed violence in both the West Department and Artibonite, forcing thousands to flee. The violence has exacerbated humanitarian access constraints in both departments, including severe restrictions on safe access to critical services.
Despite all these challenges, “the UN and partners continue to deliver humanitarian aid. In the first half of the year, they reached some 1.9 million people with some form of humanitarian assistance, including food and cash,“ said Stephanie Tremblay, a UN spokeswoman, in a media briefing Friday.
“The UN and partners have distributed hundreds of thousands of hot meals and hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to displaced people in the capital since the end of February. More resources are needed to curb soaring needs.”
As of November, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has assisted 1.55 million people across Haiti, including the distribution of 2.2 million hot meals; the UN agency aims to reach 2.35 million people in 2024 and requires $186.8 million to implement its operations over the next 12 months.
Also as of November, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has provided mental health and psychosocial support to more than 63,000 children, parents and caregivers; provided safe water and hygiene supplies to more than 259,000 people; and screened more than 323,000 children for wasting, identifying and treating more than 31,000 cases of severe wasting.
UNICEF says it urgently needs at least US$221.7 million to meet the critical humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable women and children. It says the dire food security situation underscores the urgent need for large-scale humanitarian assistance, particularly in rural areas, where 75 percent of the hungry live.
In late September, the UN Security Council approved a one-year extension for a multinational police force to help Haiti's embattled national police subdue gangs in the violence-plagued Caribbean nation.
In June, the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission began its first deployment of about 400 police from Kenya, which is leading the mission. About 100 more from Jamaica and Belize have also been deployed to help the Haitian National Police combat armed gangs that have terrorized the capital and several surrounding areas.
Kenya has announced that it will send an additional 600 security personnel to Haiti in November. Other countries are expected to contribute police officers to the force. The gang attacks in Port-au-Prince and throughout the country are putting immense pressure on the Haitian National Police (HNP) and MSS forces.
The non-UN mission has been plagued by delays as well as funding and equipment shortages. However, it has had some success inside the capital. UN officials have called for increased international financial and logistical support for the MSS mission in Haiti.
Despite the growing urgency of the crisis, funding for the MSS mission and the humanitarian response in Haiti remains critically low. The US$684 million Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) is currently only 43 percent funded, with US$288 million received.
“Haiti needs real and long-lasting solutions to end the persistent violence and bolster development,” Tremblay said.
Haiti has been rocked by instability since 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. Prime Minister Ariel Henry then led the country until he announced his resignation in March. An interim government is now in place with the goal of organizing free and fair elections. Haiti has not held elections since 2016.