A report prepared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA - Haiti) with the contribution of United Nations agencies, funds and programs, NGOs and humanitarian partners, details a provisional assessment covering the period from April 24 to May 26, 2022 .

According to data from the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), between April 24 and May 20, 2022, 61 neighborhoods were affected by widespread violence between gangs (including 15 neighborhoods in Croix-des-Bouquets, 12 in Cité Soleil and 11 from PétionVille) and 41 neighborhoods by targeted violence (including 12 neighborhoods of Pétion-Ville, 11 of Croix-des-Bouquets and 7 of Tabarre). If the situation seems to have calmed down in recent days, it remains very fragile and unpredictable.

This situation has caused the displacement of several tens of thousands of people forced to flee their homes in order to take refuge, mostly with host families, or on spontaneous sites for displaced persons. The DTM reported an estimate of 34,598 individual trips between April 24 and May 20, 2022. The majority of these flows come from the communes of Croix-des-Bouquets and Cité Soleil.

The provisional assessment of this new wave of violence reports at least a hundred peaceful citizens killed, 113 injured and 12 missing. Given the lack of access to the areas concerned, which remain under high tension, this assessment could be largely underestimated. Testimonies collected and included in a statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, describe extreme violence perpetrated by the gangs, including beheadings, mutilations and burning bodies as well as gang rapes , including on young children

In Tabarre according to data collection carried out by "Save the Children", 442 schools have closed, several having been set on fire and robbed. If the schools of Tabarre have recently reopened their doors, the situation is more worrying at the level of the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets which has seen 98% of its schools affected by the incidents.

The relative appeasement of the situation is correlated with a reduction in flows over the past few days and the observation by humanitarian partners of reflux movements of displaced people returning to their places of origin.

Moreover, the situation remains precarious and new incidents could generate other displacement movements. Clashes have again been recorded over the past two days at Canaan, on the National Road (RN) 1, while three trucks of humanitarian organizations loaded with foodstuffs have been intercepted and diverted by armed gangs on this same road during of the last ten days.

Merchants in the Great South, unable to transport their goods safely from and to Port-au-Prince, have announced an indefinite strike against insecurity from June 1, 2022.

Download the full report on the situation (PDF in French) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Violences-dans-la-zone-metropolitaine-de-Port-au-Prince-s3.pdf

HL/ HaitiLibre