PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Unrelenting gang warfare in Port-au-Prince is fueling an exodus of people from Haiti’s capital, overwhelming already impoverished cities and towns and sparking fears that the gangs will follow.
More than 578,000 Haitians, or 5 percent of the population, have fled their homes since 2021, according to the UN migration agency. The number jumped 60 percent from March through May this year alone, the International Organization for Migration reported, as heavily armed paramilitary gangs attacked the international airport and the main seaport, busted prisons open, and rampaged through the capital.
With the Dominican border closed to Haitians and regional neighbors intercepting boats, the vast majority of people fleeing the mayhem in Port-au-Prince are heading for the south, where they are cramming in with relatives or strangers.
Their arrival is transforming communities that have been suffering their own crises. A new school year, delayed a month by security concerns, begins in October with shortages of teachers and classrooms. Health care, water, and waste systems, already under strain, are struggling with the new burden.
“People are relying on solidarity, receiving neighbors,” said Claire Daphné France, mayor of the southern city of Les Cayes. “But this complicates their lives. We already had a population problem, but now all our problems are multiplied by four.”
France estimates that the port city of 125,000, a top destination for the displaced, is now hosting at least another 30,000. As a result, she said, Les Cayes and the surrounding area are seeing more “cases of insecurity and violence,” raising concern that the capital’s gang violence is metastasizing.
“We have a lot of children on the streets,” she said. “Many come from gang-controlled areas and did not arrive with their parents. … Many are in transit, and I’m afraid they’ll become gang members without proper guidance.”
Paramilitaries control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, the UN office here has estimated, and were already pushing into the countryside. The UN-approved, Kenyan-led security force that started arriving here in June has so far shown little effect.
Nearly 1,400 people were wounded or killed in Haiti from April through June, the UN office said in its most recent report. A quarter of them were women or children.
Most were victims of indiscriminate gang attacks, the office said. Others were killed in clashes between gangs and the vigilante groups that are increasingly confronting them. Killings were down from the previous quarter, but kidnappings and rapes by gang members jumped.
Haiti’s presidency has been vacant since the still-unsolved 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The National Assembly has been empty since the last lawmakers’ terms expired at the beginning of 2023.
The Caribbean nation of 12 million is now governed by an interim council and prime minister.
UN humanitarian official Edem Wosornu said she was moved during a July visit “by the generosity of the Haitian people who are splitting and sharing their bread — literally.”
Still, she said, local officials stressed to her that they “cannot deal with this level of crisis.”
“They’re used to dealing with earthquakes,” said Wosornu, the global director of operations for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “They were able to deal with Hurricane Matthew. They were able to deal with all sorts of natural disasters. But this new wave of violence is harming a lot of people and the local authorities are simply overwhelmed.”