53,000 people have left capital of Haiti due to increase in gang violence

Over 53,000 people left the capital of Haiti in less than three weeks to get away from continuous gang violence, as stated in a United Nations report on Tuesday.

Over 60 percent of people are going to the countryside in southern Haiti, and this is causing concern for UN officials.

“Our friends who help people in need said that these places don’t have enough buildings and the people who live there don’t have enough money to help all the people leaving Port-au-Prince,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The lower part of the country now has more than 116,000 Haitians who left the capital city, Port-au-Prince, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration report.

A lot of people started leaving the capital city, which has about 3 million people, after dangerous gangs attacked government buildings in late February. Criminals set fire to police stations and shot at the main airport in Haiti. They also broke into the largest prisons and let over 4,000 prisoners out.

The UN says more than 1,500 people have died and 17,000 are homeless by March 22.

Marjorie Michelle-Jean, a 42-year-old street seller, and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were some of the few people traveling north from the capital instead of south.

“I want them to stay alive,” she said, because bullets from the street keep hitting our home’s roof. They tried two times last week to go to her hometown in Mirebalais, Haiti, but they couldn’t because of roadblocks.

She said she will try again for sure. “Port-au-Prince is not safe at all. ”

The UN found that 70% of the 53,125 people who left Port-au-Prince from March 8-27 had already been forced to leave their homes and were living with family or in crowded and dirty makeshift shelters in the city.

Over 90% of people leaving the capital of Haiti are taking crowded buses, even though it is dangerous because gangs control the areas they have to travel through. There have been reports of gang rapes and shootings on public transport.


The fighting made Prime Minister Ariel Henry say last month that he will quit when a new temporary president council is made. Henry went to Kenya to try to get the UN to send East African police to Haiti. But then the attacks started, and now he can’t go to Haiti.

The group that will pick a new leader and government hasn’t been officially set up yet.

At the same time, many people are expected to keep leaving Port-au-Prince and moving to other places.

Gary Dorval, 29, is at a protest and wants to stay until a new government is in charge because he wants to help make things better.