Haiti Crisis

Haiti Map
Source: OCHA/ReliefWeb

The country

Haiti is a Caribbean country on the island of Hispaniola and shares land borders with the Dominican Republic. After declaring its independence in 1804, Haiti became the first nation in the world to be ruled by former slaves. The country covers an area of 27,750 square kilometers. Its capital is Port-au-Prince. In 2025, the country has an estimated population of about 11.9 million people. Haiti is the least developed country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most fragile states in the world.

The humanitarian situation

In Haiti, millions of people are in need of humanitarian assistance to fight hunger amid a deteriorating security situation where armed gangs control or influence up to 90 percent of the capital. The country has a long history of natural disasters and remains highly vulnerable to hurricanes, earthquakes and floods. In 2025, half of Haiti's population, some 6 million people, are in need of humanitarian assistance, including 3.3 million children.

January 12, 2025, marked 15 years since a devastating earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people. In January 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, with an epicenter about 25 km west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. More than 300,000 people are estimated to have died, 3 million were affected and approximately 1.5 million were left homeless. The earthquake was rated as the worst in the region in the last 200 years. 

On 14 August 2021, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Haiti, killing more than 2,200 people, affecting over 800,000 people and causing widespread destruction. The 2021 disaster exacerbated an already difficult humanitarian situation marked by ongoing political instability, socio-economic crisis, gang-related insecurity, internal displacement and increasing food insecurity and malnutrition.

The sociopolitical situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate, while violence and crime are on the rise, especially in the urban areas of the capital. Kidnappings, killings and gang violence have worsened the economic situation and increased insecurity, particularly in Port-au-Prince — though the violence is spreading to rural areas as well. Gangs have expanded their territorial control in recent months, especially in the Lower Artibonite and Centre departments.

For the past four years, Haiti has been under attack by armed gangs that now control or influence 80 to 90 percent of Port-au-Prince. The UN estimates that gangs now control 85 percent of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (PPMA). 

According to figures documented by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), more than 3,100 people were killed in relation to gang violence between January and June of 2025, bringing the total number of deaths and injuries since 2022 to more than 23,000, including 16,000 killings. Kidnappings continue with 336 people kidnapped for ransom in the first six months of 2025. The recruitment of children into gangs and sexual violence by gangs also continues to rise. 

In 2024 alone, more than 5,600 people were killed, 2,212 were injured, and 1,494 were kidnapped, according to OHCHR figures.

As of June 2025, nearly 1.3 million people in Haiti were internally displaced, a 24 percent increase since December 2024. Haiti now has the highest number of people ever displaced by violence, with internally displaced people (IDPs) representing 11 percent of the country's population of 11.9 million. Many of the displaced have been forced to flee multiple times. Children bear the greatest burden of forced displacement, accounting for more than half of all displaced people.

The number of displaced people tripled in one year, jumping from 315,000 in December 2023 to over one million in December 2024. In the capital city of Port-au-Prince alone, the number of displaced people has nearly doubled, increasing by 87 percent. This increase is fueled by relentless gang violence, the collapse of essential services — particularly healthcare — and worsening food insecurity.

Tens of thousands have tried to flee the country. In 2023, third countries forcibly returned more than 216,000 people to Haiti. Despite the United Nations' repeated calls that Haitians should not be forcibly returned, other countries deported over 200,000 Haitians in 2024, further straining the country's already overburdened social services. Despite the catastrophic human rights situation and dire humanitarian crisis in Haiti, nearly 170,000 people were deported to the Caribbean country between January and August of 2025.

In addition to a massive displacement crisis, Haiti is facing a severe hunger crisis. Widespread poverty, rising living costs, low agricultural production, and expensive food imports have exacerbated existing food insecurity in Haiti, leaving many women, men, and children suffering from hunger and malnutrition. More than half of the population is struggling with acute food insecurity. The latest food security report shows that a record 5.7 million people are experiencing acute hunger due to relentless gang violence and an ongoing economic collapse.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), nearly 6 million people are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or worse) and over 2 million are facing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4). The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that over 1 million Haitian children are exposed to IPC Phase 4.

Meanwhile, approximately 8,400 people are likely facing catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5).  IPC Phase 5 is the most critical level of acute food insecurity. Those experiencing this level face extreme food shortages and severe acute malnutrition, which puts them at risk of starvation.

According to a June 2025 early warning report, Haiti ranks among the world’s top five hunger hotspots, where people face extreme hunger, starvation, and death.

The health system, on the verge of collapse, faces serious challenges, crippled by both the violence and years of underinvestment. Access to health care is shrinking throughout Haiti. The situation is particularly acute in the PPMA, where, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PANH), 42 percent of health facilities remain closed, a further 16 percent are partially functional and only 42 percent are fully operational.

In 2025, the United Nations estimate that 6 million are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, a further increase from the previous year. The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Haiti seeks US$908 million to provide life-saving assistance to 4 million of the most vulnerable people. As of September, only 13 percent of the HRP has been funded, with just over US$118 million received.

Due to severe funding shortages and insecurity, humanitarian operations are facing significant challenges. As of midyear, the Haiti HNRP was the least funded humanitarian appeal worldwide. According to the UN humanitarian office, the funding gap is also affecting hurricane season preparedness, with supplies falling far short of what is needed to effectively respond to a major storm. Due to violence-related access restrictions, aid agencies are unable to deliver food, water, shelter, and health services effectively, and some have suspended or relocated certain operations.

The violence in the Haitian capital has aggravated an already precarious situation for children and their families. Hundreds of thousands of children have no regular access to schools, limited access to water and alarming malnutrition rates. Armed violence has intensified the number of children in Haiti suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), also known as severe wasting. 

Cholera broke out again in Haiti in October 2022.  Between October 2022 and April 2024, Haiti reported a total of 82,000 suspected cases of cholera and 1,270 deaths from cholera. Experts fear that the actual number is significantly higher due to underreporting.

The United Nations estimated that 5.5 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance and protection in 2024, an increase from the previous year. The humanitarian community estimated that $674 million was required in 2024 to provide life-saving assistance to the affected population.  As of January 2025, the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Haiti was only 42 percent funded.

More than 5.2 million people required humanitarian aid in 2023, including nearly 3 million children.  The United Nations 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti required US$720 million to help more than three million people. As of December, the HRP was only 33 percent funded. In July last year, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it has been forced to cut the number of people receiving emergency food assistance in Haiti by 25 percent, due to dwindling funding levels.

Flooding in November and December last year affected more than 315,000 people across the country.

Hait LocationThe security situation

President Jovenel MoĂŻse was assassinated on 7 July 2021, leading Haiti into an extra-constitutional governance structure and contributing to the country’s growing fragility. President MoĂŻse's five-year term would have ended on 7 February 2022; his assassination plunged Haiti deeper into political crisis. As a result, the national parliament and regional elections were postponed indefinitely, and the new presidential election has not yet been scheduled. 

On 20 July 2021, the Government of Haiti installed Ariel Henry as prime minister. As of June 2025, Haiti has no president, the parliament does not have any elected member and the Supreme Court did not function due to a lack of judges. On December 21, 2022, a National Consensus Agreement was signed by a broad spectrum of Haitian political figures, civil society members, clergy, trade unions and the private sector on a way forward on elections.

At the same time, kidnappings, killings and gang violence worsened the economic situation and increased insecurity, particularly in the capital. Approximately 150 criminal groups operate in Port-au-Prince, and its metropolitan region, many under two of the main criminal coalitions, the G-Pèp federation and the G9 alliance. 

Gangs control or influence up to 90 percent of the capital, gain increasing control of Port-au-Prince, and have spread to other parts of the country, particularly the central regions. An estimated two million people, including 1.6 million women and children, live in areas that are effectively controlled by gangs. 

According to human rights groups and analysts, many of the gangs are linked to political actors. They also control strategic access routes in the country and have expanded their criminal activities throughout Haiti. Armed gangs commit serious abuses against the population, including large-scale sexual violence, forcing entire communities to flee.

Since June 2021 recurrent territorial clashes between rival gangs inside and around Port-au-Prince forced thousands of people to leave their homes. In 2022, a renewed wave of gang violence killed hundreds of people and further deepened the humanitarian and political crisis in Haiti, forcing ten of thousands more to flee their homes. 

In 2023, killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence by criminal groups in and around Port-au-Prince, increased dramatically. According to the UN, at least 4,789 people were killed in Haiti, and 2,490 kidnapped in gang-related violence. The number of reported homicides for 2023 increased by 120 percent compared with 2022, the number of abductions by 83 percent.

Haiti has also seen an alarming increase in mob killings and lynchings of suspected gang members. In 2023, hundreds of alleged gang members across all ten departments of Haiti were lynched by local people and vigilante groups. At least 528 cases of lynching were reported.

Between January and December 2024, the UN recorded more than 5,600 people killed and more than 2,200 injured as a direct result of acts of gang violence. This brought the total number of deaths and injuries since 2022 to more than 17,000. In 2024, OHCHR also documented 315 lynchings of gang members and people allegedly associated with gangs

The number of people forcibly displaced continues to surge. As of June 2025, nearly 1.3 million people have been internally displaced in Haiti. As of December 2024, more than 1 million people had been internally displaced in Haiti. In October, that number was over 700,000. By March of that year, that number had grown to over 362,000, most of whom were displaced due to gang-related violence.

Haiti is now the country with the highest number of displacements due to crime-related violence in the world. According to IOM, the increase in displacement is mainly due to the deterioration of the security situation in the Port-Au-Prince Metropolitan Area and other parts of the country.

Ongoing armed attacks and clashes between armed groups and police in some communities in Port-au-Prince are causing new displacements and forcing previously displaced people to flee again. In addition to displacement in and around Port-au-Prince, the upsurge in violence and the effective siege imposed by armed groups have forced increasing numbers of people to flee to neighboring provinces.

The majority of the displaced come from the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area. Many seek refuge in Haiti's provinces, overwhelming host communities and straining limited resources. In the Artibonite department, displacement has tripled to more than 92,000 people, highlighting the spread of violence beyond Haiti's capital. In the Centre department  the number of displaced people has more than doubled in just a few months, rising from approximately 68,000 in December 2024 to over 147,000 in June 2025.

According to IOM, the number of IDP sites has jumped from 142 to 246 since December 2024. IDP sites are severely overcrowded and lack adequate access to basic services such as food, clean water, sanitation and education. Reports from these IDP sites reveal deteriorating conditions, with families struggling to survive in makeshift shelters while facing mounting health and protection risks.  

The United Nations warn that humanitarian access is seriously compromised by insecurity. The increase in gang violence had prompted the Haitian government to appeal to the international community for help. The government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry had asked for a rapid reaction force to be sent to Haiti to stop the gang violence. The call was supported by United Nations Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂĽrk also called on the international community to urgently consider the deployment of a time-bound specialized support force.

On October 2, 2023, the United Nations Security Council authorized an international force to support Haiti’s police. Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, 13 of the 15 council members voted for the non-UN Multinational Security Support Mission, while China and Russia abstained. The Mission's objective is to assist the Haitian police in curbing rising gang violence and restoring security in the Caribbean country.

Resolution 2699 (2023) authorizes the Security Support Mission for an initial period of one year, with a review after nine months. Kenya volunteered to lead the Multinational Security Support Mission and pledged approximately one thousand police officers. The Caribbean countries of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda also agreed to contribute personnel. In addition, other African countries such as Chad, Senegal, and Burundi announced that they will strengthen the multinational force.

After months of delays, four hundred Kenyan security officers arrived in Haiti in June 2024 as part of an international police contingent sent to quell rampant gang violence in the Caribbean nation. While it is unclear when the full force, which is expected to include up to 2,500 police officers, will be deployed, the arrival of the initial international police contingent was seen as the first of several milestones in the process of restoring security and prosperity to Haiti.

As of September 2024, an advance contingent of about 430 MSS personnel had been deployed to Haiti, including 410 specially trained police officers, of whom 383 were from Kenya, 25 from Jamaica and two from Belize. Kenya had announced in November that it would send an additional 600 security personnel to Haiti, but only about 200 reinforcements arrived in January 2025. A contingent of police officers from Guatemala and El Salvador also deployed to Haiti in January 2025, reportedly including 150 Guatemalans and 150 Salvadorans. The total number of deployed police now exceeds 900.

However, as of July 2025, the MSS mission was operating at less than 30 percent capacity due to funding and personnel shortages, with only 991 staff deployed, far short of the anticipated 2,500.

On October 1, 2024, the UN Security Council had approved a one-year extension for the Multinational Security Support mission to help Haiti's embattled national police quell gangs in the violence-plagued Caribbean nation. Resolution 2751 (2024) extended the mission until October 2, 2025.

On September 30, 2025, the Security Council made a significant move in addressing the escalating crisis in Haiti by adopting a resolution to transition the MSS mission into a multinational “Gang Suppression Force” (GSF).  With 12 votes in favor and 3 abstentions from China, Pakistan, and Russia, the UNSC authorized UN member states to establish the GSF in close collaboration with the Haitian government for an initial period of 12 months. 

The new mission aims to "neutralize, isolate, and deter" gangs that continue to threaten the civilian population and human rights, as well as undermine Haitian institutions. Resolution 2793 (2025) grants participating states the freedom to carry out intelligence-led, targeted operations either independently or with the Haitian National Police (HNP) and Haitian Armed Forces — a significant change. The GSF will consist of up to 5,550 personnel, including 5,500 uniformed military and police personnel, as well as 50 civilians.

The Council also requested that UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres establishes the UN Support Office in Haiti (UNSOH) to support primarily the new force, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the HNP, and the Haitian Armed Forces. Although the MSS enabled the HNP to regain access to certain areas and infrastructure, it failed to stabilize the situation. 

With regard to the crisis affecting the country's political institutions, there have been some encouraging developments last year.

On March 11, 2024, unelected Prime Minister Henry announced his resignation. Following his resignation, a transitional council was to take power. The proposal for a transitional council to govern violence-plagued Haiti emerged during a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).  The council was tasked with selecting an interim prime minister and preparing for the next presidential election, as well as appointing an inclusive council of ministers. The interim government will serve until new elections are held.

On April 12, 2024,  a formal decree was published establishing the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC).  On April 25, the Transitional Presidential Council was inaugurated and former Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert was announced as interim prime minister. Ariel Henry resigned as Prime Minister. On May 28, Garry Conille was named as the Caribbean nation’s new Prime Minister. On June 11, 2024,  Haiti's Transitional Council appointed a new cabinet.

On November 12, 2024,  Alix Didier Fils-AimĂ© was sworn in as the new prime minister, replacing outgoing Prime Minister Conille, who became embroiled in a power struggle with the country's Transitional Presidential Council.  The Council fired Conille amid political infighting and allegations of corruption against several TPC members.

The United Nations says Haiti needs a combination of a strengthened national police force, the rapid deployment of an effective multinational support force and credible elections to put the country back on the path to security and stability. The upsurge in violence in the country has exacerbated already dire living conditions for millions of people, particularly in Port-au-Prince, but also beyond the capital. UN officials warn that the crisis is deepening nationwide, and the risk of total state collapse is growing.

Donations

Your donation for the Haiti emergency can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.

Currently, there are only a few active appeals for the Haiti Crisis. You may also consider making an unearmarked donation.

To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.

Further information

Last updated: 02/10/2025

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