A city of camps: Haiti’s 185,000 displaced struggle for survival while facing gang violence

PORT-AU-PRINCE —A 60-year-old woman stood in a shadowed corner of the overcrowded courtyard at Lycée Marie Jeanne. Her wrinkled face, filled with worry, showed the strain of a life upended by violence. Lycée Marie Jeanne is one of many public institutions in Haiti’s capital that have been forced into use as makeshift shelters, as government buildings, schools, and other state infrastructure struggle to accommodate the swelling number of displaced residents seeking refuge after fleeing gang violence.

 “I would like to return to my hometown,” the woman murmured, her voice carrying the quiet desperation shared by so many of Haiti’s displaced. She has visual and other health issues. “I ask those in charge to send me there to escape this misery. I don’t sleep well, I don’t wake up well, I’m not at peace.”

The woman’s words and desperation offer a glimpse into the reality faced by thousands who have been displaced due to ongoing insecurity in the country. The impact of insecurity extends to every aspect of life from the inability to transport essential goods stuck in Port-au-Prince to the regions to farmers in rural areas unable to transport their crops to markets in the capital. Roads that were once bustling with commerce have now fallen silent due to gang control, cutting off Haiti’s agricultural and industrial lifelines. The once-regular rhythms of production, trade, transport, work, education, and nightlife are now disrupted by fear.

Gangs now control over 80% of Port-au-Prince, transforming the capital into what some have called “the city of camps” for those fleeing violence. In the first half of 2024 alone, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that around 600,000 people have been displaced across Haiti, with nearly 185,000 of those in Port-au-Prince. IOM estimates that among those displaced are some of Haiti’s most vulnerable—pregnant women, children, and people with disabilities—all forced from their homes as gang terror sweeps through entire neighborhoods.

Life in the displaced shelter

In the Lycee Marie Jeanne shelter, children and elderly alike live alongside hazards like an unsanitary water tank in the middle of the courtyard. Its murky, insect-infested water poses a significant risk of disease, but with nowhere else to go, the refugees cook and bathe just feet from it.

For some displaced residents, such as the sixty-year-old woman originally from Plateau Central, survival has become a test of endurance. She and her two daughters fled their home in Savane Pistache, a neighborhood in the capital, when gangs raided the Gran Ravin and the Savane Pistache neighborhoods, leaving behind the life they once knew. 

“I can’t imagine going back,” she said, shaking her head. “Not after what we saw.”

For others, daily life is a delicate balance between survival and fear. Makeshift markets have sprung up near the camps, with vendors selling everything from food to mechanical parts. Some women, once self-sufficient food sellers, now depend on charity or rainwater to meet their basic needs.

One mother, who took refuge in another shelter, the office of the Ministry of Communication and Culture (MCC), was a street food vendor who was supporting herself and her children from the business.

 “If someone saw where I sleep, they would see that it’s not a place even a dog would want to sleep. But, I have to stay there, like a worthless disabled person.”

A sixty-year-old Port-au-Prince residents forced to flee her home in the neighborhood of Savanne Pistache.

“When it rains, those of us in the courtyard wait on the stairs of the ministry and collect rainwater,” she said. “In the evening, when it’s not the heat, it’s the bedbugs that keep us from sleeping.”

Her story is echoed by others in the shelter, who live among piles of garbage and face constant threats to their safety. They sit among the trash, preparing meals and washing with whatever water they can find, living with conditions that, over time, have become disturbingly normalized.

Despite the growing need for shelter, the Haitian government is grappling with another crisis: many of these camps are located in schools that are scheduled to reopen on Oct. 1st. Lycée Marie Jeanne, like several other schools in Port-au-Prince, is both a place of refuge and a critical institution for the city’s students. But with no clear plan in place to relocate those living in the camps, a conflict is looming over whether the displaced will be forced out to make way for students. Meanwhile, the overcrowded shelters have become breeding grounds for disease and violence.

“We have too many people in this space,” said Géraldine Edmond, a member of the committee managing the Lycée Marie Jeanne site. “It’s a school meant to accommodate around 500 students, not 1,100 refugees. The sanitation here is disastrous.”

A displaced nation at risk: survival in the shadow of violence

The growing number of people displaced by gang violence has pushed Haiti’s fragile systems to their breaking point. Hospitals are overwhelmed, schools are on the brink of collapsing under the pressure of dual roles, and aid groups are stretched thin. And while international organizations like the United Nations and the IOM try to keep pace with the escalating crisis, they are fighting an uphill battle.

“We all have to live with it,” Edmond added. “The space is becoming more and more unlivable.”

“The insecurity has paralyzed everything,” said Edmond. “People can’t work. Children can’t go to school. Farmers can’t even get their produce out of the countryside.”

The lack of basic sanitation is not the only threat. The camps, particularly those at the Marie Jeanne High School and the Ministry of Communication and Culture (MCC), have become hotspots for sexual violence. Women and girls live in constant fear of being assaulted, with makeshift tents offering little to no protection from intruders.

“The risk of sexual violence for women and girls living in displaced sites in the capital is increasing rapidly,” the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA warned in a statement.

The organization’s report painted a bleak picture: women bathe in the open, often in the same spaces as men, and many have already been assaulted. One mother of seven living in the camp was among those who suffered rape, a crime increasingly used by gangs as a weapon of terror.

Between January and May 2024 alone, nearly 4,000 cases of gender-based violence were reported, with a staggering 65% of those victims being raped and 7% other sexual assaults, mainly committed by gang members, says the UN organization. UNFPA highlighted how gang-controlled areas have become war zones where rape is weaponized, leaving women like those at Lycée Marie Jeanne caught in an unrelenting cycle of fear. Apart from cases of rape in the camps, such as that suffered by a mother of seven children, sexual violence remains a weapon used by gangs throughout the country,  reports UNFPA.

Promises of peace and a return to normalcy

Despite a change in leadership at the Haitian National Police (PNH) and the arrival of Kenyan police officers as part of a Multinational Security Support Mission, MSS to help dislodge gangs, their grip continues to deepen. Attacks in Ganthier, Carrefour and Gressier have driven even more people into refugee camps, further straining the already overstretched resources. The authorities, however, have vowed to address the crisis.

“Our commitment to decisively deal with the gangs in Haiti has just begun,” the MSS said in a statement, following operations to clear gangs from Bas Delmas, Bel-Air, and Solino. “The MSS and HNP are conducting clearance operations to weed out gangs and return normalcy in the mentioned areas.”

For now, though, many residents remain trapped in a cycle of violence and displacement. They live day-to-day in refugee camps, holding on to the hope that one day they will be able to return to their homes, rebuild their lives, and escape the poverty that now defines their existence.

“I am desperate,” said the sixty-year-old, her eyes filled with tears. “I am waiting for help and asking the authorities to help me go to the Central Plateau.”

“I want to leave this space,” said another mother, standing in the doorless tent where she and her three children sleep. “I pay to use the toilet, and my youngest child stays with me while the other two live with friends. I feel helpless.”

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A city of camps: Haiti’s 185,000 displaced struggle for survival while facing gang violence was first posted on September 30, 2024 at 9:16 am.