Since the end of February 2024, the security situation has deteriorated in the Metropolitan Zone of Port-au-Prince (ZMPP). In addition to creating displacement within the ZMPP, widespread insecurity is pushing more and more people to leave the capital to find refuge in the provinces, taking the risks of passing through routes controlled by gangs.

In order to track these movements to the provinces and inform appropriate response strategies, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) has launched data collections. Since March 8, this activity has made it possible to observe the movements of 94,821 people leaving the ZMPP, in majority (58%) by means of transport heading towards the departments of the Grand Sud, which already welcomes more than 116,000 people who had largely fled the ZMPP during the past months.

Half of the flow headed towards 3 main destination municipalities: Jérémie (Dept. Grande Anse), Les Cayes (South) and Léogâne (West). It should be emphasized that the provinces do not have sufficient infrastructure and the host communities do not have sufficient resources that can enable them to cope with these influxes of displacement from the capital.

Among those surveyed leaving the ZMPP, almost 40% were traveling with families. The majority of these people had as their usual residence the neighborhoods located in particular in the municipalities of Port-au-Prince (26%), Delmas (17%), Pétion-ville (16%) and Carrefour (7%). A large part of them (63%) were already internally displaced for reasons linked to violence and insecurity. Among these people already displaced, 82% took refuge with their loved ones and 18% in sites, before deciding to leave the ZMPP.

Should be noted that at the beginning of March 2024, when the security situation worsened, it was the people who were already displaced who were the first to start leaving the capital. Nearly 40% are people who had never fled their residence and who decided to leave it and seek refuge in the provinces, which highlights the major deterioration of the situation in the capital, given that leaving the capital is a relatively quicker decision to make for a person who was already displaced than for someone who was still in their residence and who decides to leave it to search for refuge in the provinces...

HL/ HaitiLibre