Haiti: the country is under siege, the economy has been at a standstill for five years, the number of displaced people is growing hour by hour

ROMA – Fifteen thousand people displaced in just one week: this is the toll of the wave of violence that has afflicted Haiti since the end of February. In recent days the armed gangs who are holding the country in check with the aim of overthrowing Prime Minister Ariel Henry have attacked prisons, taken control of the port, set fire to dozens of shops and police stations, blocked the airport international. Henry, who is also interim President, was in Kenya negotiating the sending of a UN-backed international contingent to bring order to his country when the crisis erupted again on February 29 and was unable to return to Port -au-Prince. Thousands of people have been forced to flee due to the resurgence of clashes and the majority of them – clarifies theInternational Organization for Migration (OIM) – was already living in the camps and had already suffered other displacements. In total, there are ten sites that housed Haitians who were left homeless and evicted due to the guerrilla war, while a total of 160,000 people were displaced in the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince.

Chaos. The last elections were held seven years ago, Henry during a meeting with the leaders of the Caribbean countries announced the vote for mid-2025, while three years ago the young President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated: since then the country has been living in a constant state of war that impedes development and life itself. Haitians live with fear every day, every hour, with ever greater trauma. Insecurity is spreading nationwide: clashes in the Artibonite department, in the center of the country; roadblocks in Cap Haitien, one of the most populous cities, located in the North; in the South there is no fuel; Port-au-Prince has become an open-air prison: those who live in the capital cannot move, there are no safe places to escape, armed groups have surrounded every neighborhood, it is a city under siege. There are two rival coalitions in particular: G9led by Jimmy Chérizier, a former policeman, and Gpèp, which does not have a single leader. Before the uprising of recent days the gangs controlled more than 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.

Hospitals under attack. The collapse of the health system, attacks on hospitals by armed groups and the lack of mental health services are some of the elements worsening the humanitarian crisis. Some hospitals were attacked by criminal gangs and had to evacuate both staff and patients, including newborns. Doctors can no longer do their job. The police force is also understaffed, with around 10,000 officers on duty across the country while, according to the United Nations, 26,000 are needed.

Traumas. With thousands and thousands of people continually forced to move because their lives are in danger, psychological support services are needed, which are completely lacking. Many of the displaced people interviewed by the IOM have personally experienced violence and rape, all of whom live in overcrowded temporary sites which cannot guarantee dignified living conditions. In this scenario, suicidal tendencies among the population are also constantly increasing.

The numbers of violence. Nearly 4,000 people were killed and 3,000 kidnapped due to gang-related violence in 2023, says theHIM. Sexual violence is increasingly a plague: in October there were 1,100 attacks against women. There are 362 thousand displaced people, 15 percent more than at the beginning of the year, half of whom are children. The lack of goods and resources contributes to worsening an already precarious economic situation, paralyzed for at least five years. Whenever a wave of displacement occurs, as in recent days, reception places present a series of challenges that need to be urgently resolved such as access to drinking water and basic services. The IOM, which has been working in Haiti since 1994, intervenes by distributing blankets, solar lamps, kitchen sets, plastic sheets, health and cash assistance to the most vulnerable groups and psycho-social support through mobile clinics.