Haiti: 53,000 people fled Port-au-Prince in three weeks due to violence

More than 50,000 people have fled the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in three weeks in search of safety from the gang violence plaguing the capital of Haitias announced this Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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Between March 8 and 27, 53,125 people left the city and joined the 116,000 displaced people who fled in the previous months, the IOM said in a press release.

Many of those who fled Port-au-Prince in March headed south, according to the organization, and the vast majority reported that they were leaving “because of violence and insecurity.”

“It should be noted that (the other) provinces do not have sufficient infrastructure and the communities they host do not have sufficient resources to deal with these massive flows of people displaced from the capital”, says the statement.

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Since the end of February, the powerful bands of Haiti They joined together to attack police stations, prisons, the airport and the port in a fight against the unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

This situation triggered a serious humanitarian crisis, with food shortages and an almost total collapse of health infrastructure in the poorest country in America.

In the first three months of 2024 alone, until March 22, 1,554 people died and 826 were injured by gang violenceas reported by the UN last week.

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Henry, who came to power without submitting to a popular vote following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, announced on March 11 that he would resign to hand power to a transitional council.

But the appointment of this group of nine people was delayed due to internal differences and the alleged legal doubts of the outgoing government.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.