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Thousands of Haitians have been displaced from their homes in the centre of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Gang violence has soared since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, which led to much of the Caribbean country's territory falling out of government control. Around 80% of the capital is controlled by gangs.

Last month, a woman, who we are not naming for safety reasons, narrowly escaped when a gang threw a Molotov cocktail into her home. She and two of her children jumped a wall and fled. "We were running away and there was a man behind us. And he got hit by a bullet," she recalls.

While the woman was able to find shelter with her two children, she was told that her mother's house in the same neighbourhood had been burnt down and that her family members there had likely died. "There's nothing that can replace the scar on my heart," she says.

Image: Policemen walk by a tire fire during a demonstration in Port-au-Prince Credit: Johnson Sabin/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock.

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