PORT-AU-PRINCE — Nearly 1.5 million people are now internally displaced across Haiti as gang violence pushes families far beyond the capital, the International Organization for Migration said in a report released Friday.
Nearly 80 percent of those uprooted now live outside Port-au-Prince, with the sharpest recent increase in the Artibonite department, once seen as a refuge. Displacement there rose about 16 percent between May and August as insecurity forced new waves of movement, IOM said. Armed attacks in Kenscoff near the capital displaced more than 4,000 people, with reports of homes burned, kidnappings and killings.
Hundreds of thousands are living in informal settlements, collective sites or other precarious conditions during Atlantic hurricane season. “For families already displaced by violence, a major storm could trigger another humanitarian emergency,” IOM Haiti Senior Emergency Coordinator Elise Verron said. IOM is appealing for $60 million under its crisis response plan.
Sources: International Organization for Migration, Reuters via ThePrint
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