There are two Haiti’s. One is the capital, Port-au-Prince, which is now controlled by armed gangs who terrorize the population with impunity. Since January 2025, over 4,000 people have been murdered, property taken or burned, and thousands of women and children sexually attacked. More than 1 million people have been displaced and are now 

living in displacement camps vulnerable to attack by armed groups. Widespread school and hospital closures have impacted hundreds of thousands of Haitians.

Haiti, already suffering from extreme poverty, now has an acute food emergency. Over 5.7 million people are acutely food insecure. The World Food Program designated Haiti as one of the five countries in the world facing starvation.

The response of the international community has been tepid. Worsening the situation, the United States has abruptly curtailed 80% of its funded aid programs to Haiti. The United Nations sent only 1,000 of the 4,000 promised Kenyan police to assist the Haitian National Police but they have struggled with underfunding and are outmanned by armed criminal groups. Clearly, a larger, more aggressive United Nations Stabilization Force is necessary to curtail the spiraling armed violence.

The second Haiti is the countryside. Road blockades by the gangs have impeded food and essential supplies reaching Gros Morne, the town in the northwest Haiti where we have worked for more than twenty years. The blockades have caused a marked increase in costs of essential such as rice, beans, and cooking oil. However, the Alma Mater Hospital has kept its doors open and the Medicine For Peace Women’s Health Program continues to adapt and grow. We are caring for more patients each year and have had to hire additional professional staff to maintain our high quality of health care. Medicine for Peace remains committed to help the Haitian people through this crisis.