Growing Gang Violence in Haiti Displaces Nearly 580,000 People: UN Report

A man with his face covered calls on demonstrators to stop during a protest against Prime Minister Ariel Henry's government in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 1, 2024. (Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters)

More than half a million people have been displaced in Haiti as the country’s security situation rapidly deteriorates and armed violence increases, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.

A report published on June 18 by the organization says some 578,074 people were displaced mainly as they fled the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, to seek refuge in provinces that lack the resources to support them.

The number has increased by 60 percent since a March report by the organization found that 362,551 people were internally displaced in Haiti, which was already ravaged by a 2021 earthquake.

About 54 percent of the internally displaced persons are female and 52 percent are children, according to the latest report.

“The number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] displaced during this year is already almost the same as the number of IDPs during the whole of 2023, indicating a growing deterioration of the security situation during the first part of 2024,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, the country is struggling with acute food insecurity, according to the report, with the organization determining that from March to June 2024, all areas of the country are either in Phase 3 (Crisis) or Phase 4 (Emergency), indicating “the severity of the food security situation in the country.”

The U.S. government issued a Level 4 warning for Haiti in March 2020 because of what it called the “unpredictable and dangerous” situation in the country.

However, as the security situation worsened, the U.S. State Department announced in March this year that it would start evacuating Americans stranded in the Caribbean nation after armed gangs targeted the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, along with the nearby seaport, and set fire to police stations.

Interim Prime Minister Vows to Tackle Rising Crime

Armed gangs also attacked the country’s two biggest prisons, helping thousands of inmates escape, and took control of at least 80 percent of Port-au-Prince and key roads leading to the rest of the country.

The violent incident—which broke out while then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Nairobi, Kenya, advocating for the deployment of a U.N.-backed police force to the East African country—prompted the government to declare a state of emergency on March 3.

Mr. Henry, under repeated criticism, resigned shortly after.

He was replaced by an interim prime minister, Garry Conille, a former regional director for the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) who previously served as Haiti’s prime minister from October 2011 to May 2012 under President Michel Martelly’s administration. He was sworn in in early June.

Mr. Conille has vowed to ensure political factions and the individual interests of various groups are put aside for the “best interest of the nation.”

The newly formed government is awaiting the deployment of a U.N.-backed police force from Kenya and other countries.

In the meantime, violence continues to rise both inside and outside of Haiti’s capital, with armed gangs last week attacking communities, including families, in Terre-Neuve and Gros-Morne, in the Artibonite department of Haiti, according to multiple local reports.

Ten people were killed in that attack, including a pregnant woman, multiple reports state.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.