Photo Essay: Gang violence and hunger in Haiti

Camping in schools, hungry families ask: when will normality return?

People displaced by gang war violence live inside a classroom at Darius Denis school, which transformed into a shelter where people live in poor conditions, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti May 5, 2024. Nearly half of the country’s population is struggling to feed themselves due to the conflict, unable to work, the families depend on food rations and hygiene kits brought in by non-governmental organizations. "We can't do anything - there's no money, no trade," said Mirriam Auge, 45, a mother who was forced out of her home three months ago. "We lost everything in our homes, I cried while everyone was sleeping. "REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo SEARCH "ARDUENGO VALTIERRA HAITI HUNGER" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Celimaine Heixil, 29, holds her daughter, both displaced by gang war violence, at Darius Denis school. Nearly half of the country’s population is struggling to feed themselves due to the conflict, unable to work, the families depend on food rations and hygiene kits brought in by non-governmental organisations

People follow armed gang members in a march organised by former police officer Jimmy 'Barbecue' Cherizier, leader of an alliance of armed groups, in the Delmas neighbourhood

A boy carries food distributed by a community action centre, with the assistance of the United Nations World Food Programme, for gang war refugees at Jeunes Filles high school

People displaced by gang war violence eat food distributed by a community action centre

Mirriam Auge, 45, washes clothes at Darius Denis school

Enoc Jean Batis, left, 28, and his wife Celimaine Heixil, 29, cook as she holds their daughter at Darius Denis school

A woman displaced by gang war violence hangs clothes

Children displaced by gang war violence play football at Argentine Bellegarde National School

A child pretends to feed the head of a broken doll at Argentine Bellegarde National School

Majorie Edoi sells food from a stand in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, or she used to, until a conflict with armed gangs cut off the city from suppliers, paralysed trade routes and pushed the Caribbean country to its highest levels of hunger on record.

The 30-year-old mother of three now sells food out of one of the many makeshift camps for displaced people set up in the city's schools. But with goods harder to come by, opportunities to provide for her young children are shrinking fast. "We can't buy anything. We can't eat. We can't drink," she said. "I'd like there to be a legitimate government to establish security so we can move around and sell goods, so the children can go to school."

Some five million people in Haiti, nearly half its population, are struggling to feed themselves due to the conflict, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an international benchmark used to assess hunger.

Since the 2021 assassination of Haiti's last president, armed gangs have expanded their power and influence, taking over most of the capital and expanding to nearby farmlands. Their land grabs have brought lootings, arson, mass rapes and indiscriminate killings. In June, the first contingent of a long-delayed UN-backed force of mostly African troops arrived in Haiti to bolster its under-resourced security services, and Kenyan police began patrolling the capital. Residents have responded with cautious optimism, although it remains unclear when the majority of the force will arrive.

For mothers like Edoi and Mirriam Auge, 45, change cannot come fast enough. "We can't do anything - there's no money, no trade," said Auge, who was forced out of her home three months ago. Since then, she has been sharing a chair to sleep on with her two daughters and five others in a makeshift school-shelter crammed with tents. "We lost everything in our homes," she said.

"I cried while everyone was sleeping." Unable to work, the families depend on food rations and hygiene kits brought in by non-governmental organisations, whose delivery drivers brave stray bullets along Port-au-Prince's ever-changing battle-lines.