The number of people fleeing gang violence in Haiti has tripled last year to more than one million, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said its latest data showed that 1,041,000 people, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, are struggling amid a growing humanitarian crisis.
“In December 2023, we (recorded) about 315,000 people displaced by violence,” IOM spokesperson Kennedy Okoth Omondi told reporters.
“A year since then, we have seen the number of people displaced by mass violence in Haiti triple to more than one million.”
In the capital, Port-au-Prince, IOM said displacement had increased by 87 percent “due to continuing gang violence, the collapse of essential services – particularly health care – and worsening food insecurity.”
The impoverished Caribbean country has been dogged by political instability for decades, made worse by gangs that have grown in power in recent years.
Despite a Kenyan-led police assistance mission supported by the United States and the United Nations, violence continues to escalate.
Last week, the U.N. rights office said rising gang violence in Haiti left more than 5,600 people dead last year and thousands more injured or abducted.
“Haiti needs sustained humanitarian assistance right now to save and protect lives,” said Amy Pope, IOM Director-General.
“We must work together to address the root causes of violence and instability that have led to so much death and destruction.”