Haiti’s humanitarian Situation gets Worse with Mass Displacements

Editorial credit: Nelson Antoine / Shutterstock.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, January 27, 2024 – Despite lip service from the United States, Canada, CARICOM and the EU, the humanitarian situation in Haiti is getting worse, forcing more and more people to leave their homes and the country because of violence kidnappings and armed gangs which cast a shadow over the lives of the population.

“More than half of the people currently displaced in the country were displaced in 2023,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported in its latest assessment.

In December 2023 alone – the IOM specified – more than 310,000 individuals had to leave their homes, and these figures illustrate the constant worsening of the humanitarian and security situation in the country, particularly in Port-au-Prince.

Recently, the Director General of Civil Protection, Jerry Chandler, admitted that the displaced are living in precarious conditions.

Thousands of people had to leave their homes to seek refuge with relatives, in shelters or public spaces such as squares, churches and gymnasiums.

Chandler acknowledged that the situation of the displaced is very difficult, as they survive in overcrowded conditions and without basic sanitation, which could lead to waterborne diseases such as cholera, which has already claimed a thousand lives since October 2022.

The International Organization for Migration, the World Food Program, the Economic and Social Assistance Fund and the Social Assistance Fund do not have sufficient resources to care for all the victims.