Children make up at least half of Haiti’s displaced population, which has tripled within a year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.
The number of people uprooted by gang violence in Haiti has more than tripled in the last year to hit a record high of at least 1 million, the UN migration agency said on Tuesday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the situation is particularly severe in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where “relentless gang violence” has fuelled a near-doubling of internal displacement and the collapse of healthcare and other services.
“The latest data reveals that 1,041,000 people, many displaced multiple times, are struggling amidst an intensifying humanitarian crisis,” the Geneva-based agency said in a statement. Children make up more than half of the internally displaced population.
The figure marks a tripling in displacement from 315,000 in December 2023, IOM said.
The forced return of around 200,000 people — mostly from the neighbouring Dominican Republic — to Haiti over the last year had worsened the crisis, according to the UN agency. Both countries share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
Haiti has been plagued by worsening gang violence since the 2021 assassination of its then-President Jovenel Moïse. Armed gangs now control most of Port-au-Prince, and the arrival of a UN-backed multinational security force last June has had little impact so far.
More than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year, up 20% on 2023, according to data released last week by the UN Human Rights Office.
Additional sources • AP
