As the crisis in Haiti deepens, a record number of people have been forced to leave their homes due to gang violence according to the United Nations.
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The U.N.’s migration agency says Haiti has hit another grim milestone. A record 1.3 million people have fled their homes and are now counted as internally displaced. It is the highest number of people displaced by violence ever recorded in Haiti. NPR’s Eyder Peralta has more on this story. And a warning to our listeners, this story does contain references to sexual violence.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: This crisis began back in 2021, when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated. Since then, transitional governments have come and gone, and a Kenyan-led security mission entered the country. But the violence and suffering has not relented. Indeed, Diana Manilla Arroyo, who heads the Doctors Without Borders mission in Haiti, says things have only gotten worse. In the past few months, for example, their teams have been attacked by police, and as the violence spiraled, the charity group was forced to shutter one of their hospitals. Now they’re only running one hospital, and Manilla says they are treating patients in their hallways.
DIANA MANILLA ARROYO: This hospital has been completely overwhelmed with the demand in the last few months.
PERALTA: Manilla says what they are seeing is a rise in general aggression towards civilian communities. Gangs are expanding their territory, and as they do so, they break into homes. They take valuables.
MANILLA ARROYO: And then if there are women, regardless of their age, whether they are 60 or 15 or younger, they rape them, and then they often set the house on fire with the purpose of preventing the family to come back if they flee.
PERALTA: Doctors Without Borders runs a clinic that takes care of victims of sexual violence. And for the past three years, they have seen cases multiply. Laurent Uwumuremyi of Mercy Corps says their worry is that as this conflict goes on, Haitians have had to pick up and run multiple times, making them even more vulnerable.
LAURENT UWUMUREMYI: They’ve left everything because of the level of violence, and they exclusively depend on humanitarian assistance.
PERALTA: And the problem, Uwumuremyi says, is that as gangs expand their territory, it limits the areas where humanitarians can operate. It means…
UWUMUREMYI: The humanitarian access to the population in need is more and more being restricted.
PERALTA: According to U.N. statistics, nearly half of Haitians are facing hunger, and some areas are approaching famine conditions. Mercy Corps calls it a, quote, “humanitarian meltdown.”
Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.
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