(2025-05) ACAPS Thematic Report - Haiti: Conflict Escalation and Increasing Internal Displacement (19 May 2025)
Summary — This ACAPS thematic report analyses the humanitarian impact of escalating armed violence in Haiti's Centre department, where Viv Ansanm attacks on Mirebalais and Saut d'Eau from 30 March 2025 killed at least 76 people, freed over 500 prison inmates, and newly displaced more than 51,400 people by mid-May. Based on a secondary data review, it documents needs in shelter, protection, health, education, and food security among IDPs dispersed to Boucan Carré, Hinche, Lascahobas, and Savanette, and flags risks of further gang expansion toward the Dominican border and the Péligre dam.
Key Findings
- Viv Ansanm attacks on Mirebalais and Saut d'Eau from 30 March 2025 killed at least 76 people by 22 April, freed over 500 prison inmates, and newly displaced more than 51,400 people, including some 27,000 children, by mid-May.
- Displacement sites nationwide nearly doubled from 119 in March to 228 in April 2025, with 97 of the 121 new sites in Centre department, while about 76 percent of Mirebalais IDPs stayed with relatives.
- Essential services collapsed in the affected area: the Mirebalais University Hospital and all schools in Mirebalais closed, with at least 42 schools in Centre used as IDP shelters and referral hospitals in Hinche and Artibonite overstretched.
- Cholera risk is rising, with 1,487 suspected cases nationally between late December 2024 and mid-April 2025 and heightened vulnerability in Centre where 37 percent of households used unprotected spring water.
- ACAPS anticipates violence spreading toward communes near the Dominican border and possible gang targeting of the Péligre hydroelectric dam, while the US funding suspension undermines a response already dependent on external aid.
Full Description
ACAPS examines the surge in displacement triggered when the Viv Ansanm gang coalition attacked Mirebalais and Saut d'Eau in Centre department from 30 March 2025. By 22 April the clashes with Haiti's Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission had killed at least 76 people; gangs also facilitated the escape of over 500 inmates from Mirebalais prison. By 16 May at least 51,400 people, including approximately 27,000 children, had been newly displaced from Mirebalais district, moving mainly to Boucan Carré (24 percent), Hinche (21 percent), Lascahobas (17 percent), and Savanette (11 percent), with around 76 percent staying with relatives. The report situates this within a national displacement crisis exceeding one million IDPs, with more than 130,000 people newly displaced by gang violence since January 2025 and displacement sites nearly doubling from 119 in March to 228 in April, 97 of the new sites in Centre. The analysis is based on a secondary data review and acknowledges limited up-to-date information given access constraints.
Sectoral impacts include the closure of the Mirebalais University Hospital and all schools in Mirebalais (42 schools in Centre serving as IDP shelters), 1,487 suspected cholera cases nationally between late December 2024 and mid-April 2025 with rising alerts in Ouest and Centre, and overstretched referral hospitals in Hinche and Artibonite. The report identifies humanitarian access constraints from gang control of roads linking Port-au-Prince to the rest of the country and anticipates further spread of violence toward communes near the Dominican border, threats to the Péligre hydroelectric dam, increased irregular cross-border movement given the Dominican Republic's visa suspension for Haitians, and compounding effects of the June-October rainy season. The crisis unfolds against a backdrop of aid underfunding aggravated by the suspension of US assistance, which had provided about 59 percent (USD 207 million) of funding committed to Haiti's 2024 humanitarian response.
Notes
ACAPS thematic/anticipatory analysis