More than 15,000 people have been forced to escape the fighting in Haiti because of a new wave of violence this week that was sparked by a senior gang leader’s attempt to oust the prime minister, adding to the country’s already dire situation and growing feeling of lawlessness.
“Armed gangs forced us to leave our homes. They destroyed our houses, and we’re on the streets,” Nicolas claimed that he feels like an animal since he is sleeping in such close quarters and living in a tent.
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As Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled to Kenya to finalize an agreement for the deployment of foreign troops to reestablish order, the situation worsened throughout the weekend. After two significant prison breakouts resulted in the escape of convicts and several gunshots were heard around the city on Sunday, Haiti’s ailing government proclaimed a state of emergency.
According to reports in the American and Haitian media, Henry could be trying to get back to Haiti from New York. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said he was unaware of his location or any planned meetings when questioned.
Embassies have summoned back their employees in the interim. The Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, has tried to bolster border security and has declared that it would not establish camps for displaced Haitians.
Over the weekend, the UN immigration agency announced that at least 15,000 people had been forced to flee their homes because of violence.
“I didn’t have time to take any of my things, not even my underwear,” Jasmine, who wished to remain anonymous, recently stated while residing in a shelter. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Reynold Saint-Paul, a resident of the Lalue district of Port-au-Prince, said he went to a shelter in search of water, which is becoming more and more rare in the capital.
According to the rights organization Plan International, many people were escaping the city for Artibonite, which was formerly Haiti’s breadbasket farming region but is currently experiencing food shortages as the violence moves north.
After 500 testimonies from three regional communes were evaluated, it was discovered that many families were going without food for a day, half of the children were not attending school, and many felt forced to join gangs due to a lack of employment options. The children’s rights group believed that between 30 and 50 percent of gang members were underage.
According to Allassane Drabo, the country director, girls are more vulnerable to forced marriage since their parents cannot provide for their fundamental requirements. “Widespread violence is robbing too many of their childhood, with girls being forced to swap schoolbooks and bread for guns and wedding dresses,” he said.
Of the 11 million people living in Haiti, Kwanli Kladstrup, the country director of the assistance organization Concern Worldwide, estimated that five million were suffering from severe hunger.
“Peace and security need to be established as quickly as possible to enable humanitarian work to be ramped up further,” she stated.
“Everybody is traumatized, and we are seeing increased numbers of people being forced to flee their homes – often bringing nothing with them – to escape the fighting.”
Violent gangs have increased their sphere of influence after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021, further destabilizing an already unstable security environment. Henry, the head of an unelected transitional administration, had promised to resign by February, but he put off the procedure because of security concerns.
Nations have been hesitant to provide their backing, with some even casting doubt on Henry’s government’s legitimacy in the face of massive demonstrations. Some people are leery of foreign interventions because of the disastrous cholera pandemic and sex abuse scandal that was caused by past U.N. missions, for which no compensation was ever paid.
Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean demanded last week’s regional meeting to quickly and effectively implement the United Nations resolution from the previous year that ratified the multinational force headed by Kenya.
However, a date for the security mission’s deployment has not yet been determined. Five countries had formally committed soldiers as of late February, according to the U.N., and less than $11 million had been placed into a mission fund.
According to humanitarian relief organizations, its personnel have found it difficult to continue providing services because of the violence, and they are also persistently underfunded. According to Dujarric, only $17 million of the $674 million U.N. humanitarian appeal this year has been received.
According to U.N. estimates, the fighting claimed about 5,000 lives last year and forced about 300,000 people to flee their homes.
