Haiti’s security crisis forces displacement and relocation

Haiti's Centre Department, long spared the gang violence plaguing Port-au-Prince, was overrun in early 2025 when coalition Viv Ansanm forces led by Jeff Larose and Wilson Joseph attacked Mirebalais and Saut d'Eau, burning homes, looting a major hospital, and freeing prisoners.

The IOM estimates roughly 147,000 people were displaced, many crowded into schoolrooms with up to 70 people per room and no functioning sanitation. On June 5, the IOM, Haiti's civil protection agency, and the US Embassy relocated more than 350 families from two overcrowded school sites in Hinche into a new transit center with latrines, showers, water tanks, and a communal kitchen.

Displaced residents described the school conditions as unbearable — standing water, illness, constant mosquito bites — and welcomed the move as a basic restoration of dignity. The relocation will also let over 1,000 students return to classrooms when the school year resumes in September.

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