The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that more than 20,000 people have been forced to flee Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince in just four days, including more than 17,000 sheltering in 15 displacement sites, as gang violence escalates. In a statement on Sunday, the UN organization said the current crisis has disrupted critical supply chains and isolated the city as criminal groups in the capital continue to expand and take control of more neighborhoods.
According to IOM, many of the women, children and men affected have faced multiple displacements, repeatedly forced to flee violence and leave behind what little they have managed to rebuild. This level of displacement has not been seen since August 2023.
More than 700,000 people are displaced in the country, more than half of them children, with the latest violence in the capital displacing tens of thousands in recent weeks. Haiti is now the country with the largest number of people displaced by crime-related violence in the world.
“The isolation of Port-au-Prince is amplifying an already dire humanitarian situation,” said Grégoire Goodstein IOM’s Chief in Haiti.
“Our ability to deliver aid is stretched to its limits. Without immediate international support, the suffering will worsen exponentially. With only 20 percent of Port-au-Prince accessible, humanitarian workers face immense challenges in reaching affected populations.”
For the past three years, Haiti has been plagued by armed gangs that control or influence 80 to 90 percent of Port-au-Prince and are spreading to rural areas and other urban centers. The UN estimates that gangs now control 85 percent of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (PPMA).
Since November 11, criminal gangs have been attacking several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince in an attempt to expand their territorial control, challenging the limited response capacity of the Haitian National Police (HNP) and the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.
On Monday, at least two patients were executed after a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) ambulance was stopped by members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers. MSF staff in the ambulance were violently attacked, insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with death, and held against their will.
According to MSF, police officers and members of the self-defense group then took the wounded patients a short distance away, where at least two of them were executed. MSF called on the authorities and all actors involved to uphold the right to access to health care and to ensure the protection of patients and respect for medical personnel and health facilities.
“This act is a shocking display of violence, both for the patients and for MSF medical personnel, and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian population, which is in dire need,” said Christophe Garnier, MSF head of mission.
Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince's international airport is closed until November 18, following the targeted shooting of three commercial planes over the capital, and after the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) issued a flight ban over Haiti until December 12. As a result, all UN flights have been temporarily suspended, limiting the flow of humanitarian aid and humanitarian personnel into the country.
IOM said the closure of air traffic, restricted access to the country's main seaport and unsafe roads controlled by armed groups have left the metropolitan area in a state of near total paralysis, compounding the suffering of an already vulnerable population.
Criminal groups in the capital continue to expand, taking control of more neighborhoods and further isolating communities. Formerly rival factions, which once clashed over territorial disputes, have joined forces and formed alliances to combat the efforts of the National Police, which remains overstretched and under-resourced, and faces significant challenges in containing the escalating violence.
According to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), gang-related violence has caused thousands of deaths in 2024. Gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual violence used as a weapon of terror, has reached alarming levels. Women and children are disproportionately affected, with 94 percent of displaced women and girls at increased risk of violence.
Haiti 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 facing severe food insecurity.
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.
Despite several challenges, IOM is actively assisting internally displaced persons (IDPs) through the provision of rent subsidies and the use of mobile clinics to provide primary health care, medicines, and protection services such as psychosocial support, family reunification efforts, and assistance to survivors of gender-based violence.
IOM continues to coordinate site management and water trucking for IDPs. Operations in the rest of the country continue, including assistance to deported migrants at border crossings, rehabilitation of migrant protection centers and various community stabilization projects.
The organization stresses the importance of upholding humanitarian principles as the crisis escalates.
“Ensuring the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and civilians is paramount,” IOM said.
The UN organization calls on all to respect the neutrality and impartiality of relief operations, to allow unimpeded access to those in need and to safeguard the integrity of humanitarian assistance.
IOM is also calling for an urgent increase in funding and support for humanitarian operations in Haiti. To date, the UN's US$674 million response plan remains only 43 percent funded, leaving millions of Haitians without the assistance they desperately need.
Haiti has been plagued by instability since 2021, when President Jovenel MoĂŻse was assassinated. An interim government is now in place with the goal of organizing free and fair elections. No elections have been held in Haiti since 2016.
Alix Didier Fils-Aimé was sworn in as the new prime minister on Monday, replacing outgoing Prime Minister Garry Conille, who was appointed in May but became embroiled in a power struggle with the country's Transitional Presidential Council (TPC). The Council fired interim Prime Minister Conille amid political infighting and allegations of corruption against several TPC members.
Gang attacks in Port-au-Prince and throughout the country put immense pressure on the Haitian National Police and Multinational Security Support forces. In June, the 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 HNP 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 this month. It is expected that other countries will also contribute police officers to the force.
The non-UN mission, plagued by delays as well as funding and equipment shortages, has so far deployed less than a quarter of its planned contingent, and leading UN officials have called for increased international financial and logistical support for the MSS mission.
Further information
Full text: Over 20,000 Flee as Rising Gang Violence Spurs Mass Displacement in Haiti, IOM, press release, published November 17, 2024
https://www.iom.int/news/over-20000-flee-rising-gang-violence-spurs-mass-displacement-haiti