Some 40,965 people were displaced in ten days, between November 11 and 20, in Port-au-Prince due to a new outbreak of gang violence, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday. . Some people were forced to flee for the second or even third time, the UN agency said.
“The scale of these displacements is unprecedented since the start of our response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti in 2022,” commented Grégoire Goodstein, head of IOM for Haiti, in a press release.
In total, more than 700,000 people are displaced in this poor Caribbean country. “This crisis is not just a humanitarian challenge. It is a test of our collective responsibility,” insisted Grégoire Goodstein, emphasizing the difficulty for UN teams to carry out their mission in these conditions of insecurity.
An outbreak of violence fueled by “Viv Ansanm”
Haiti has suffered for decades from chronic political instability and a security crisis linked to the presence of armed gangs accused of murders, kidnappings and large-scale sexual violence.
For two weeks, Port-au-Prince and neighboring communities have been facing a new outbreak of violence fueled by “Viv Ansanm” (Living Together), an alliance of gangs formed in February and managed to overthrow the then prime minister, Ariel. Henry.
