Nearly 100,000 people fled Port-au-Prince in one month

United Nations, United States. Nearly 100,000 people fled the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince in the last month due to the intensification of attacks by armed gangs, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced Friday.

According to data collected at the most used bus stations, the IOM found that between March 8 and April 9, 94,821 people fled the capital to go mainly to the departments of Greater South, which already host 116,000 displaced people. They fled in recent months, the IOM said in a statement.

The previous IOM figure reported 53,000 displaced people between March 8 and 27.

The agency points out that these figures do not necessarily reflect the entire flow, since some displaced people do not pass through the points where the data is collected.

The destination provinces “do not have sufficient infrastructure and the host communities do not have sufficient resources to allow them to face these massive flows of displaced people from the capital,” comments the IOM.

According to the data, the majority (63%) of the nearly 100,000 people who fled the capital were already internally displaced, often having first taken refuge with relatives in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.

Some had already been displaced two, three or more times.

But the IOM has observed a new phenomenon: while in early March IDPs were the first to leave the capital, over time, those who had not been displaced before are also deciding to leave.

“This further describes the deteriorating situation in the capital, given that leaving the capital could be a relatively quicker decision for someone who was already displaced than for someone who was still at home and decided to leave to seek refuge in the provinces. “comments the UN agency.

The vast majority (78%) of people interviewed by IOM as part of this data collection exercise stated that they were leaving the capital due to violence, and 66% said they would stay away “as long as necessary.”

Haiti has been devastated by poverty, natural disasters, political instability and armed gang violence for decades.

Since the end of February, powerful Haitian gangs have joined together to attack police stations, prisons, the airport and the seaport in an attempt to force the departure of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who decided to resign on March 11 to make way for a council of Transition.

But the formation of this council has not yet been finalized.