Haiti’s population is being held hostage to brutality and gang violence, according to a report from the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), which contains harrowing testimony from a country seemingly in freefall.
The 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) for Haiti describes life in the country as a daily, terrifying struggle for survival, the result of three consecutive years of economic recession, a political impasse, and unprecedented levels of gang violence.
Every day, more and more people fall into extreme poverty; 31 per cent of the population lives on less than US$2.15 a day, and some 4.8 million are food-insecure, which means that they struggle to meet their daily nutritional needs.
Find out more about the report to which three Haitian artists agreed to contribute their artwork, and read the stories of some of those caught up in the violence, here.
