The European Union's Humanitarian Office (ECHO) reports that armed gangs in Haiti attacked the town of Petite-Riviere in the Artibonite department on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, injuring 60 and setting fire to 20 houses. Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that humanitarian agencies are scaling up life-saving assistance in other parts of Haiti, where armed violence continues to hamper access to health care.
ECHO - the European Commission's Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid - said in an update on Friday that since Monday, a series of attacks on several rural communities in Petite-Riviere have also forced an estimated 13,000 people to flee for safety. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the majority of those displaced have sought refuge with host families in the town of Petite-Riviere.
OCHA said on Friday that in Centre Department, north of the capital Port-au-Prince, the UN and its partners delivered three emergency kits this week - enough to treat up to 30,000 patients for three months. The kits, which include surgical instruments and other essential supplies, were sent to hospitals in the department's capital, Hinche, the commune of Boucan Carré and the village of Cange.
Health facilities in the Centre Department are struggling to cope with acute shortages caused by the influx of displaced people. Resources in the remaining functioning hospitals remain critically overstretched following the closure of a major referral hospital in the department, as the University Hospital of Mirebalais was forced to suspend operations amid a wave of insecurity in the area.
Following recent attacks and the takeover of the towns of Mirebalais and Saut d'Eau by armed groups, the situation in the region remains tense. More than 51,000 people - including 27,000 children - have been displaced. Although aid agencies continue to support those hospitals that are still functioning, access restrictions reported along the main transport routes are hampering their efforts to deliver vital aid.
Throughout Haiti, access to health care is shrinking. The situation is particularly acute in the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (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.
At the same time, severe funding shortfalls are undermining humanitarian operations in the Caribbean country. To date, the Haiti 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is less than 7 percent funded, with just over US$61 million received out of more than $908 million needed.
The latest food security report on Haiti shows that a record 5.7 million people - more than half of all Haitians - are acutely hungry, driven by relentless gang violence and ongoing economic collapse. Rising armed violence has also led to massive displacement as armed gangs seek to expand their control, forcing more than a million people from their homes.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), of the nearly 6 million people experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC3 or worse), more than two million are estimated to be facing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4). The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than one million children in Haiti are exposed to IPC4.
Meanwhile, approximately 8,400 people are expected to face catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5). IPC5 is the most critical level of acute food insecurity, where people experience extreme food shortages, severe acute malnutrition and are at risk of starvation.
Gang violence in Haiti continues to have a devastating impact on the country's population. Since early 2025, waves of extreme brutality in the country have resulted in widespread casualties and the displacement of thousands of people. In the first quarter of the year, more than 1,500 people were killed, more than 570 others injured, and at least 161 kidnapped in gang-related violence, according to the United Nations.
The Caribbean island nation has been plagued by gang violence and instability since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The national police force is understaffed and ill-equipped, and has been unable to stop the gangs that terrorize the population, especially in the capital. Gangs now control about 90 percent of Port-au-Prince.
The ongoing armed violence has brought the country to the brink of collapse and created a dire humanitarian crisis, with at least half of Haiti's population, some 6 million people, in need of humanitarian assistance, including 3.3 million children.
In response to a sharp increase in deportations from the Dominican Republic, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday it was urgently scaling up its humanitarian response in the border towns of Belladère in the Centre department and Ouanaminthe in the North-East department.
Some 20,000 vulnerable Haitians were deported in April, the highest monthly figure recorded this year.
"The situation in Haiti is becoming increasingly dire. Each day, deportations and gang violence worsen an already fragile situation," IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement.
"Support from donors and the international community has helped strengthen the humanitarian lifeline, but far more is needed, as the number of vulnerable people continues to grow."
IOM stressed that the marked increase in the number of highly vulnerable people - including pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, children and newborns - being forcibly returned is particularly alarming.
Gang control of the town of Mirebalais has effectively cut Belladère off from the rest of the country, blocking safe access for humanitarian workers, medical supplies and aid. This isolation is exacerbating already dire conditions for deportees and displaced populations alike, who remain unable to reach their hometowns.
Basic supplies, including food, water, and medical equipment, are running out in Belladère.
"This is a compounded crisis spreading beyond the capital, with cross-border expulsions and internal displacement converging in places like Belladère," said Grégoire Goodstein, IOM's Chief of Mission in Haiti.
"Delivering assistance is becoming increasingly difficult as humanitarian actors find themselves trapped alongside the very people they are trying to help."