The country’s capital Port-au-Prince is facing high levels of violence and gang attacks on its neighbourhoods. The assault forced residents to start fleeing their homes on Saturday.
Gangs have intensified their attacks on a number of towns in and around the capital, where much of the city and its suburbs are under the control of various armed groups united in a common alliance known as Viv Ansanm.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that thousands of residents have been displaced in the Solino district of the capital in recent days, including people who had previously been displaced from other areas. Residents fled by tying mattresses, furniture, kitchen utensils and other belongings to lorries, others fled on foot.
Overall displacement in has doubled in the past three months to nearly 700,000 people, according to WFP statistics. In addition, the humanitarian situation remains dire, as a UN helicopter providing humanitarian aid was fired on Thursday while flying over the capital. It later landed successfully.
Apart from, the WFP said on Friday that 5.4 million Haitians are suffering from acute hunger, with pockets of famine-level hunger recorded among internally displaced persons. The UN had earlier authorised an international force to help Haitian police liberate the territory from gangs, a mission poorly resourced and with little results.
