Gang violence displaces a record 1.3 million Haitians - UN

UNITED NATIONS (CMC):

The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) says nearly 1.3 million people have been forced to flee gang violence in Haiti and seek refuge elsewhere within the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state.

On Wednesday, the IOM said this represents a 24 per cent increase from December 2024 – the largest number of people displaced by violence on record there.

“Behind these numbers are so many individual people whose suffering is immeasurable; children, mothers, the elderly, many of them forced to flee their homes multiple times, often with nothing, and now living in conditions that are neither safe nor sustainable,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope.

The UN said these figures were released just ahead of a meeting on Wednesday at UN Headquarters in New York, organised by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in examining how peace and stability can return to the Caribbean nation, following years of chaos and crisis.

The meeting discussed ways of consolidating peace at the local level and reducing the violence, particularly through the involvement of women and youth in local initiatives.

At a press conference prior to the meeting, ECOSOC President Bob Rae said the current situation in Haiti was “truly existential.”

“It’s important that we have a meaningful discussion about what we can do together to address these problems,” he said, emphasising that it’s “not just about increasing firepower.”

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Joining the briefing via video conference, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, also stressed that this is a “multifaceted crisis”, which must be addressed with similarly multifaceted and dynamic solutions.

“We believe that the international community’s response must match the scale, urgency, and complexity of the challenge,” she said. “That’s why strong international security support must be accompanied by peacebuilding measures, humanitarian action and political support that could ultimately allow Haiti to make progress on the path to sustainable development.”

According to the IOM, while the capital Port-au-Prince remains the epicentre of the crisis, with 85 per cent controlled by gangs, violence, extending beyond the capital, has intensified in the past few months.

Recent attacks in the Centre and Artibonite departments have forced tens of thousands of other residents to flee, many now living in precarious conditions and temporary shelters.

In the Artibonite department in western Haiti, it said over 92,000 people have been displaced – largely because of violence in Petite Rivière.

In the Centre department, the situation is even more “alarming”, with a total of 147,000 displaced.

This number has doubled from 68,000 in the past few months as a result of fighting in towns like Mirebalais and Saut-d’Eau.

As more and more people are forced to flee, the UN said the number of spontaneous displacement sites is also increasing.

Since December, these sites have increased from 142 to 246.