Above 20,000 people were forced to leave their places of residence within four days in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Princedue to the catastrophic humanitarian situation and the further escalation of gang violence, announced yesterday Saturday the International Organization for Migration (IOM), part of the UN system.

“Such a scale of displacement was to be observed from August 2023,” the United Nations agency underlined.

The IOM said about 17,000 of the 20,000 displaced people were already in shelters for people forced to leave their homes.

Haiti, the poorest country in the region, has for too long been mired in chronic crisis due to gang violence and political instability. But since the start of the year, the poorest Caribbean nation has faced a further surge in gang violence, which is estimated to control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.

Since Tuesday, the Haitian capital has also been cut off from the rest of the world, after the US Civil Aviation Authority (FAA) decided to ban commercial flights by US companies to Port-au-Prince International Airport after three planes were hit by bullets on Monday. The UN also suspended humanitarian aid flights bound for Port-au-Prince, diverting them to the airport in Cap Aisin (north).

“The isolation of Port-au-Prince exacerbates the already disastrous humanitarian situation,” stressed the Gregoire Goodsteinofficial of the IOM delegation in Haiti, according to the press release.

“Our ability to distribute aid has reached its limits. Without immediate international support, the suffering will worsen exponentially,” he warned.

Since Monday, Port-au-Prince has been living at the pace of a new escalation of violence, against the backdrop of a political crisis that culminated in the ouster of the prime minister Gary Connell by the presidential transition council and his replacement by the businessman Alix Didier Fils-Eme.

The latter, who was sworn in on Monday, promised to restore security and hold elections in Haiti, the first since 2016. He has since been holding consultations to form his cabinet.