Red Cross warns of imminent humanitarian collapse in Haiti
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The Red Cross warns Haiti risks a full humanitarian collapse as gang violence escalates, displacing 1.3 million and crippling the country's health system.
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A woman gives a pedicure to a young man at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP)
Haiti faces the risk of a "humanitarian collapse" as violence escalates, with clashes between gangs and vigilante groups intensifying, according to a statement made on Thursday by the country's senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Armed groups now control nearly all of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, Marisela Silva Chau, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Haiti said on Thursday.
"If this escalates, then the population will not have really a space and any place to go," she stated, adding that "We are deeply concerned, because the situation is reaching a point where we may see... a humanitarian collapse."
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is grappling with severe political instability while large portions of its territory remain under the control of rival armed gangs that perpetrate killings, sexual violence, and abductions.
The country, currently governed by a transitional administration, has seen a renewed escalation in violence since February as gangs expand into areas once considered secure.
Silva Chau warned that six million Haitians, half the country's population, require immediate humanitarian assistance, adding that just 40% of healthcare facilities remain operational.
She also warned that the rise of self-defense groups could flood the population with weapons, escalating armed conflicts, while also cautioning that if humanitarian operations continue to shrink and support networks fail, civilians may lose all means of survival.
The United Nations reports that gangs now control 85% of Port-au-Prince and are intensifying assaults on remaining unoccupied territories, while also revealing that the violence has displaced a record number of nearly 1.3 million people within Haiti.
