NEW YORK – The United Nations has issued an urgent update confirming that a fresh surge of brutal gang violence in Haiti’s northern Artibonite department has driven a new wave of mass displacement across the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation.
The bloodshed unfolded in late March, when armed assailants linked to the Gran Grif gang—one of Haiti’s most powerful and feared criminal groups—launched coordinated assaults on communities in Jean-Denis. According to preliminary on-the-ground reports, the attacks left at least 16 civilians dead and dozens more wounded, shocking local populations and triggering immediate panic-driven flight.
Initial assessments pegged the number of newly displaced people at more than 6,000, but updated figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released by the UN now put the total number of people displaced by this recent outbreak of violence above 13,000.
In a press briefing Tuesday at UN Headquarters in New York, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric shared details from humanitarian teams operating in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, noting that 80 percent of the displaced have found temporary shelter with host families across safer regions of the country. The remaining 20 percent are now residing in 16 informal displacement sites, where basic supplies and services are already stretched thin.
“Humanitarian teams from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) are working alongside Haitian national authorities and local partner organizations to deliver life-saving support to vulnerable populations,” Dujarric said. “But persistent access constraints, widespread insecurity, and critically limited funding are severely hampering our ability to scale up the response to meet growing need.”
The international community has already spoken out against the latest attacks, with both the United States and Canada issuing formal condemnations of the gang violence that continues to destabilize Haiti.
This new crisis comes amid a years-long collapse of public security across Haiti, a French-speaking member of the Caribbean Community (Caricom). Widespread gang domination and escalating violence have plagued the country since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, leaving millions of Haitians facing acute food insecurity, lack of access to basic healthcare, and persistent threat of violence. Millions have been displaced nationwide since the security collapse began.