(2025-01) Impact of Gang Violence on Food Systems in Haiti - 2024
Summary — A Mercy Corps Crisis Analysis Team report on how gang violence disrupted Haiti's food systems in 2024 through four channels: gang control of supply routes (RN1, RN2, RN3, RN8), mass displacement straining host economies, abandonment of farmland, and unpredictable airport and port closures. It documents food inflation near 40 percent, over 700,000 IDPs by December 2024, and more than 3,000 hectares of farmland relinquished in Artibonite, and identifies three indicators to track in 2025.
Key Findings
- Gangs extort tolls of 500 to 5,000 gourdes and stage ambushes along RN1, RN2, RN3, and RN8, inflating transport costs, causing urban market shortages, and pushing food inflation to nearly 40 percent.
- The average basic food basket cost 26,385 gourdes in October 2024 (+2 percent month-on-month); maize rose 10 percent in the Northwest and Southeast and vegetable oil up to 15 percent in Nippes.
- Over 700,000 people were internally displaced by December 2024 (37 percent in metropolitan Port-au-Prince), overwhelming host-community markets, with nearly half the population, about 5 million people, facing acute hunger.
- Farmers in Artibonite relinquished more than 3,000 hectares of farmland, with ACLED conflict data and NDVI anomalies confirming declining vegetation and likely weaker harvests.
- Twin closures of Toussaint Louverture airport (March and November 2024) and sporadic port disruptions constrained imports in a country that imports more than half its food, while emergency food assistance covered under 4 percent of the population.
Full Description
This Mercy Corps Crisis Analysis Team report (dated December 2024) analyses the transmission of gang violence into food insecurity across Haiti in 2024. It maps gang extortion along the four national routes that carry Haiti's food trade: RN1 to the Artibonite Valley, RN1's checkpoints near Croix-des-Bouquets and Saint-Marc, RN2 to the southern agricultural regions through Martissant, RN3 to the Central Plateau, and RN8 to the Dominican Republic border, with tolls of 500 to 5,000 gourdes, ambushes, and confiscations inflating transport costs and consumer prices. The average basic food basket reached 26,385 gourdes in October 2024 (up 2 percent month-on-month), maize prices rose 10 percent in the Northwest and Southeast, and vegetable-oil prices rose up to 15 percent in Nippes. Over 700,000 people were internally displaced by December 2024 (37 percent in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area), straining host-community markets. In Artibonite, farmers relinquished more than 3,000 hectares of farmland, a decline corroborated by ACLED conflict data and NDVI vegetation anomalies, while the closures of Toussaint Louverture airport (March and November 2024) and periodic seaport disruptions constrained imports in a country that imports more than half its food. FEWS NET projects Crisis (IPC 3) and Emergency (IPC 4) outcomes through May 2025, with emergency food assistance covering under 4 percent of the population. The report flags food price inflation, IDP trends, and agricultural output and land abandonment as the top indicators to track in 2025.