Haiti displacement surpasses one million people: UN
Al JazeeraJAN 11
UN: Over 1M Internally Displaced in Haiti Amid Gang Violence
Above: Displaced families who have fled their homes in neighborhoods facing armed gang violence take refuge in the Frère Jean Baptiste college in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 31, 2024. Image copyright: Clarens Siffroy/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images
The Facts
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Tuesday that more than 1M people — over half of them children — are currently internally displaced in Haiti, over three times more than on Dec. 20, 2023, as gang violence surges.
This is an all-time high for displacement due to violence in Haiti, and inches close to the 1.5M people internally displaced by the earthquake that struck the country on Jan. 12, 2010.
Most of the displaced left the gang-dominated metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Prince — where displacement rose by 87% within a year — for overstretched rural areas.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Haiti is at a crossroads. Time is running out for the international community to avoid a complete collapse of security and state authority in Haiti by either making good on its commitments to help the multinational security force operating in the country or transforming it into a UN peacekeeping mission. Otherwise, the country will head to a civil war.
Establishment-critical narrative
None of the US-sponsored neocolonial interventions in Haiti have been particularly successful, including the Multinational Security and Support mission currently on the ground. Neither this occupation nor a potential UN peacekeeping mission will address the plight of the people — only Haitians can achieve that.