Record number of people displaced by violence in Haiti, UN agency says

A record 1.3 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Haiti due to a surge in armed violence in the last six months, according to the UN agency for migration.

The number of people internally displaced in the Caribbean country has jumped 24% since December, according to the International Organization for Migration. It is the highest number of people displaced by violence ever recorded by the IOM in the country.

"Behind these numbers are so many individual people whose suffering is immeasurable; children, mothers, the elderly, many of them forced to flee their homes multiple times...and now living in conditions that are neither safe nor sustainable," said Amy Pope, IOM Director General.

Gangs armed with weapons largely trafficked from the United States have formed an alliance in the capital Port-au-Prince and together control 85% of the city, according to the U.N.

A growing number of people are fleeing the capital for safety elsewhere in the country, according to the IOM.

In the Centre Department, a region north of the capital, fighting has driven double the number of people away from their homes from around 68,000 to more than 147,000 in towns like Mirebalais and Saut-d'Eau, the IOM said.

Many people are living in makeshift shelters and do not have access to health care, schooling or clean water, it added.

In February UNICEF reported on a surge in sexual violence against children in Haiti. Extreme poverty has also pushed children into gangs, with up to half of all armed groups made up of minors, according to the U.N. children’s agency.