Haiti’s humanitarian catastrophe reached alarming new levels, with over 78,500 people displaced in the first quarter of 2025, according to Reuters.
Save the Children warns that Port-au-Prince stands “on the brink of collapse” as armed gangs now control nearly all neighborhoods and critical escape routes from the capital, according to aid organisation’s Haiti director Chantal Sylvie Imbeault.
Children in Haiti are trapped in a nightmare.
The crisis has been compounded by dwindling international aid, including US funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s temporary freeze on foreign assistance. While the US eventually released $64 million to bolster the mission, Save the Children notes that broader aid cuts have crippled humanitarian efforts.
Haiti’s transitional government, eroded by unchecked gang violence, has resorted to controversial tactics. Fritz Alphonse Jean, current head of the nine-member council, recently announced an alliance with the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas, a paramilitary group linked to ex-rebel leader Guy Philippe, who orchestrated the 2004 coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The move underscores the council’s dwindling options. Philippe, earlier deported from the US after a money-laundering conviction, has sought to rebrand himself as a security solution, despite his group’s history of clashes with police. Meanwhile, former council leader Leslie Voltaire is courting regional support at a CELAC summit in Honduras, as public protests grow.
A multinational security force, spearheaded by Kenya with 1,000 personnel, has faced setbacks in its bid to stabilise Haiti. Recent gang confrontations left several Kenyan officers wounded, with at least one fatality reported.
