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Gang Control and Mass Displacement in Haiti

2021–2026 · Americas

Displacement Mass Killing

Displaced

1.4 million

About 1.4 million internally displaced by September 2025, roughly double the previous year, according to OCHA's 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan; displacement passed 1 million in January 2025, up from about 520,500 in September 2024 (IOM/DG ECHO).

Share of the population affected

12%

of the population of Haiti, 2025

Killed

5,601

direct killing

As of 2026-06. IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix reported 1.4 million displaced during 2025 and a record 1.5 million in June 2026; the count has risen at every round.

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What happened

After the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, armed gangs consolidated control over most of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and expanded into the Artibonite and Centre departments, using killings, arson and sexual violence to clear neighbourhoods. Internal displacement rose from about 520,500 people in September 2024 to more than 1 million in January 2025 and roughly 1.4 million by September 2025, close to one in eight Haitians, with about 69 per cent of recorded movements occurring outside the capital. The UN Human Rights Office recorded 5,601 people killed, 2,212 injured and 1,494 kidnapped in gang violence in 2024, including a massacre in Cité Soleil in early December in which at least 207 people, mostly elderly, were killed; it also documented 315 lynchings and 281 summary executions by specialised police units over the same year. Three-quarters of the displaced shelter with host families in the provinces, and the rest largely in formal sites in the capital. OCHA projected 6.4 million people needing emergency assistance in 2026 with only about 10 per cent of inpatient health facilities nationally still fully operational.

Parties

Armed gangs seized control of most of Port-au-Prince and stretches of the Artibonite and Centre departments, driving residents out amid state collapse

Disputed

Responsibility is contested in that the UN documents both gang atrocities and unlawful killings by police units and by vigilante 'bwa kale' mobs, and the displacement figures rest on IOM site and household tracking in areas that are frequently inaccessible, so totals are revised substantially between rounds.

The denominator

UN estimates and IHSI projections put Haiti at roughly 11.7-11.9 million in the mid-2020s; the last full census was in 2003. Displacement is concentrated in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area (about 2.8 million) and the Artibonite and Centre departments, but IOM reports the displaced total nationally.

The figure is a stock of people currently displaced; many have been displaced more than once, and cumulative displacement since 2021 is higher.

Where the baseline comes from

IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix - Haitiofficial
Demographics of Haitiopen-edited

On the death toll

The figure is the UN Human Rights Office's verified count of people killed in gang-related violence in Haiti during calendar year 2024 alone, an increase of more than 1,000 on 2023; it is not a total for the whole 2021-2026 period, for which no consolidated verified toll has been published. The UN treats its own figures as a floor, since insecurity prevents verification in gang-held areas.

Documented forms of violence

Mass KillingSummary Execution

Both forms are documented in the UN Human Rights Office's 2024 figures for Haiti, which record gang massacres including the Cité Soleil killings and 281 summary executions attributed to specialised police units.

Formal findings

UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR/BINUH) (2025) — 5,601 people were killed, 2,212 injured and 1,494 kidnapped in gang violence in Haiti in 2024, including at least 207 people, mostly elderly, killed in a single massacre in Cité Soleil; 315 lynchings and 281 summary executions by specialised police units were also recorded. — source