Humanitarian crisis in Haiti. The number of internally displaced persons increased by 60% since March in the country, due to the escalation of gang violence, and now overall it is reaching almost 600,000, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), part of the UN system, said yesterday Tuesday.

“The numbers we see today are a direct consequence of years of violence, which escalated, reaching a new peak in February, and the devastating humanitarian impact”, commented Philippe Brancha, head of the IOM branch in Haiti.

“The endless crisis in Haiti is forcing more and more people to leave their homes, to leave everything behind. These are not decisions taken lightly. And the worst: for many, it’s not the first time,” he added.

According to figures released by the IOM yesterday, the country now has 578,074 displaced people, up from 362,551 at the beginning of March, out of a total population of 10 million.

While 2024 is still in its midpoint, the number of displaced this year is “almost equal” to that of all of 2023, underscoring how much the security situation has deteriorated, the text notes.

This increase is mainly due to the large number of residents who left the capital Port-au-Prince to take refuge in other areas, which did not necessarily have the required resources for their reception.

The IOM thus recorded almost 95,000 people who left the capital between March 8 and April 9, heading mainly to Grand Sid province, where the displaced now make up 10% of the population.

Haiti remains mired in political instability for decades. But in recent months, the country has faced a sharp escalation in gang violence, which controls about 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Nationally, most of the approximately 600,000 displaced people (80%) are hosted in the homes of relatives, according to IOM data.

But this is not the case in the capital, where more and more makeshift shelters are being used — especially schools — and displaced people are living in unsanitary conditions.

The IOM now estimates that the number of displaced persons in the Port-au-Prince metropolis reaches almost 185,000, in other words up 15% since March.