Haiti Crisis Deepens: 6.4 Million Need Humanitarian Aid as Gangs Control Most of Capital

Haiti Crisis Deepens: 6.4 Million Need Humanitarian Aid as Gangs Control Most of Capital

Haiti's humanitarian emergency is accelerating at an alarming rate, with more than half the country's population now in need of assistance, a senior United Nations official warned following a recent mission to the Caribbean nation.

Edem Wosornu, Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Crisis Response Division, briefed journalists after visiting Haiti from 16–20 March, describing a situation that has "changed significantly" since her last mission two years ago.

Hunger and displacement at staggering levels

According to UN News, some 6.4 million Haitians — over half the population — now need humanitarian assistance. Of those, 5.7 million are going hungry, with families skipping meals and children leaving school to help support their households. An estimated 1.5 million people, roughly 12 percent of the population, have been displaced.

"These are not abstract figures," Ms. Wosornu said. "These represent families uprooted, families displaced; separated children — many who've lost the homes that they knew."

Gang violence and a paralyzed capital

Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, is now 90 percent under gang control, according to the OCHA briefing. Ms. Wosornu also traveled to Centre Department, where a recent wave of violence left approximately 80 people dead and forced 13,000 to flee.

During her visit, she toured overcrowded displacement sites, including a school designed for 400 students that now shelters roughly 2,800 people. Conditions were dire.

"They described at night vermin, roaches, coming out; rashes on the skin of children," she said. "The very ground I was walking on was the very place people were sleeping on at night."

Across Haiti, 1,600 schools remain closed due to insecurity, leaving 250,000 children without access to education — a devastating blow in a country that deeply values schooling, according to Ms. Wosornu.

Gender-based violence surging

The situation for women and girls was described as "particularly horrendous." According to UN News, 8,100 survivors of gender-based violence were recorded last year — a 25 percent increase from the previous year. Half of the reported cases involved rape, and one in six survivors is under 18.

Ms. Wosornu recounted meeting a 16-year-old displaced girl and her three-month-old baby, describing them as "a child holding a child." The teenager had been separated from her family and subsequently abused by a man who offered to care for her.

Only 30 percent of survivors receive medical assistance or psychological support within the critical 72-hour window after sexual violence, a gap attributed to insufficient humanitarian funding.

A call for global attention

OCHA is sounding the alarm on what it characterizes as a severe and worsening crisis marked by rising insecurity, mass displacement, and a challenging operating environment for humanitarian organizations.

Ms. Wosornu spoke of meeting women whose "glazed-over eyes" reflected their trauma, underscoring the human toll behind the statistics.

The crisis in Haiti — the Western Hemisphere's most acute humanitarian emergency — continues despite receiving limited international attention. OCHA's briefing called for urgent global action, though the source material does not detail specific funding requests or pledges from the international community.

Note: This article is based on a single UN News source reporting on an OCHA briefing. Independent verification from additional sources was not available in the provided material.