30,000 people flee renewed violence in Haiti as hunger crisis worsens

Much of the violence is concentrated in Cité Soleil, a poor neighborhood in the capital, where humanitarian workers are now working to provide life-saving aid.

The Caribbean island nation continues to suffer from years of entrenched insecurity and poverty as well as economic collapse and political chaos following the president’s assassination.

Here’s what two women who fled the violence told the UN World Food Program (WFP).

Anidette Saint Fleur, from Quartier Blanchard (Cité Soleil)

“There was shooting everywhere. Then they lit a fire very close and we ran away with the whole family.

We didn’t go back to our house. The gangs are everywhere in the region. We only had time to leave with our identity documents. We haven’t been back since.

I always have a bag ready, just in case. When I heard loud gunshots, I grabbed my bag and ran away with everyone.

I had just paid the rent and we had to escape. Now we have nothing – no money, no roof – and we don’t know if or when we can return. Please help us.

Not having a roof over our heads and food for the children is the hardest thing for us right now.”

Dorlean Boudin, resident of Sarthe, Carrefour Vincent near Cité Soleil

“There are people with machetes who burn down houses with people in them. They burn, behead, shoot, kill – and if you have a shop, they loot everything.

The situation is already very difficult for me, I have very little money. I couldn’t buy food because I had to save money in case of an emergency, to escape. We stayed without food so we could save on transportation to escape.

I need to restart a small business to raise the kids. I need food assistance to feed them, and buy water because we don’t have any.”

WFP has reached 8,500 new evacuees from Cité Soleil with emergency food assistance, while nine WFP-supported schools serving around 12,000 students were forced to stop food distribution.

WFP’s Janvier Muhima said the community was provided with food supplies including rice, vegetable oil and enriched flour so they could feed themselves during this period of displacement.”

Across the country, more than 1.4 million people, or more than 12 percent of the population, were forced to flee their homes, mainly because of criminal violence.

Port-au-Prince has become a center of violence, with 90 percent of the city believed to be under gang control.

Recruitment of children is reportedly increasing, and some estimates suggest that children now make up 30-50 percent of gang members.