More than 10,000 Haitians have fled their homes due to armed gangs

Photo: People flee their homes to escape gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

More than 10,000 Haitians have been forced to flee their homes in the past week due to armed gangs that have stepped up attacks on areas they do not yet control.

These estimates were published on Thursday, October 24, by the UN migration agency, Reuters reports.

In early September, the agency said more than 700,000 Haitians had been declared internally displaced, a figure nearly double what it had been six months earlier.

Gangs have stepped up attacks outside the capital Port-au-Prince in the past week, where much of the city and its surrounding areas are controlled by various armed groups united in a common alliance known as Viv Ansanm.

The conflict is causing food insecurity among some of the population as gangs take over farmland and cut off transportation routes, and people forced to flee their homes, often moving to host families or makeshift camps, can no longer rely on a stable income to feed themselves.

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Armed gang members walk the streets near the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 23, 2024.

While the U.N. has authorized an international force to help Haitian police wrest control from gangs, the mission is poorly resourced and has produced no results.

Haiti's leaders asked to transform the force into a formal peacekeeping mission to get the resources it needs, but the effort was blocked in September by China and Russia.

Gangs that have previously targeted national police, civilian defense units and government infrastructure have also begun attacking foreign vehicles.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti told Reuters that two of its armored vehicles had come under fire from gangs on Monday. One was hit by several bullets, but no one was hurt.

A U.N. helicopter carrying 18 people was also hit on Thursday, hitting several bullets but no one was hurt, the Miami Herald reported. The UN office in Haiti did not respond to a request for additional information.

Prepared by: Sergey Daga