Haitians flee as gangs have taken much of capital

Armed members of 'G9 and Family' march in a protest against Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 19, 2023. [AP Photo]

"Our humanitarian partners also distributed more than 48,000 liters of water in three displacement sites across the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. However, displaced families in the capital continue to live in appalling conditions and struggle to receive and access assistance to meet their most basic needs," OCHA says.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in international pledges, few funds have been handed over to the U.N. dedicated security mission trust fund. Gangs, meanwhile, benefit from extortion, ransom payments and alleged backing from corrupt elites that have allowed them to amass large arsenals.

Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation on March 11 as worsening violence blocked his return from abroad, pending the installation of a transitional council brokered by regional leaders to install his replacement.

For decades the country has been wracked by poverty, natural disasters, political instability and gang violence. The assassination of Haiti's 43rd president, Jovenel Moise, on July 7, 2021, in Port-au-Prince set off months of spiraling insecurity and violence in the country - intensifying during February's clashes - a few weeks before Henry's resignation announcement.

Unelected and unpopular, Henry's decision to step down as part of an internationally brokered plan has not calmed the violence.

His replacement due to be named by the so-called transitional council remains in limbo. The council has yet to be officially formed and installed amid disagreement among the political parties and other stakeholders because of doubts over the very legality of such a council.