Amid humanitarian funding shortages and escalating violence, MSF is providing care and drinking water to Haitians affected by clashes.
A view of the Delmas 18 zone, after clashes between armed groups and police. | Haiti 2024 © Corentin Fohlen/Divergence
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in Haiti have witnessed a surge in violence since February 24, which has increased the number of wounded people and many other medical needs.
Clashes between armed groups and police are intensifying in Port-au-Prince, leaving civilians trapped under constant threat of crossfire. Today, 85 percent of Port-au-Prince is under the control of armed groups, according to the UN, and movement in many neighborhoods puts lives at risk.
From February 24 to March 2, the MSF medical teams at the Turgeau Emergency Center treated 314 patients, including 90 direct victims of violence—twice the usual number. Some patients requiring surgery were transferred to the MSF hospital in Tabarre, where the capacity for trauma care was expanded from 50 to 75 beds. For the past 10 days, the hospital has been running at near full capacity, with teams working under extreme pressure to admit new patients.
Since February 14, attacks by armed groups in several neighborhoods of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area have forced over 24,000 people to flee, and this number continues to rise amid the ongoing violence. As of today, the International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 180,000 internally displaced people are living in over 140 sites. These vulnerable people, some of whom have been displaced multiple times, are seeking refuge in makeshift camps where access to clean water is either extremely limited or completely nonexistent.
For over a month, the suspension of US funding has deprived many humanitarian organizations of their resources, forcing groups like Solidarités International to suspend the distribution of drinking water in displacement camps. According to Solidarités International, displaced people in the camps are trying to survive on about 4 cups of water per day. This is far below the international emergency standard, which recommends 4 gallons of water per person per day. In response, MSF is currently deploying a water distribution system via tanker trucks to provide for more than 13,000 people living in four camps.
“We have identified more than 100 displacement camps in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, but the scale of this crisis far exceeds what MSF can respond to alone, especially with the rainy season approaching,” said Christophe Garnier, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti.
The coming rainy season raises the risk of sanitation systems flooding, hygiene conditions deteriorating, and deadly disease outbreaks, including cholera.
“The humanitarian response plan in Haiti is severely underfunded, even as the conflict escalates and thousands of people are repeatedly forced to flee, seeking refuge in makeshift camps with limited access to basic services such as water and sanitation,” said Garnier. “Without urgent action, the situation will turn into a humanitarian catastrophe, as relentless violence continues to deepen the suffering of an already exhausted population.”
