Attachments
Highlights:
- In 2025, Haiti descended into its darkest chapter yet. Armed violence uprooted over 1.4 million lives – nearly triple the toll of early 2024. As armed groups tightened their grip, cholera swept through weakened communities, claiming 71 lives, while more than 270,000 were forced back across borders they had fled to escape. With 5.7 million people facing acute food insecurity, the crisis impacted the most vulnerable: nearly 130,000 children under five now suffer from acute malnutrition.
- Despite the constraints, UNICEF and its partners delivered critical life-saving assistance in 2025, treating more than 60,000 children for severe wasting, supporting the reintegration of more than 570 children from the armed groups (since January 2024), providing safe water to 178,000 people, providing healthcare to 626,000 people, and enabling access to education for 44,000 children.
- The 2025 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal was 19 per cent funded, with US$52 million mobilized against the US$272 million required.
SITUATION IN NUMBERS
3,300,000 Children in need of humanitarian assistance
748,000 Displaced children, out of 1.4M total displaced
7,470 Gender-based violence cases between Jan.-Sep. 2025
FUNDING OVERVIEW AND PARTNERSHIPS
The 2025 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal for Haiti totals US$272 million, reflecting urgent multisectoral needs across nutrition, education, child protection, health, WASH, cross‑sectoral humanitarian systems strengthening and emergency preparedness. As of 31 December 2025, approximately 81 per cent (US$220 million) of UNICEF’s appeal remained unfunded, underscoring a deeply strained funding environment.
This deficit reflects worsening pressures across the international aid landscape. Throughout 2025, UNICEF Haiti undertook extensive resource mobilization efforts, including more than a dozen concept notes, targeted donor outreach, senior leadership missions, and strengthened communications and advocacy. Despite these efforts, donor consultations indicate that ODA envelopes for 2025–2026 continue to shrink. Consequently, available and projected resources remain far below what is required to sustain life‑saving services, retain core staffing, or support surge capacity amid a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian context.
Despite these challenges, UNICEF Haiti received critical life-saving contributions from CERF, SIDA, US Government/BHA and PRM, the Government of Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, ECHO (including top‑ups), and Education Cannot Wait (ECW). Several National Committees, including those of the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Spain, and Canada, also provided significant support. Additional financing through the Global Humanitarian Thematic Fund and the Emergency Programme Fund (EPF) played a pivotal role in preventing pipeline breaks and sustaining priority interventions.
Nonetheless, severe sectoral gaps persist, with Child Protection again one of the most underfunded areas, facing funding gaps nearing 90 per cent. Yet, Haiti's crisis is fundamentally a protection crisis, as children are bearing the brunt of violence, displacement, and facing grave violations of their rights. Within Child Protection, funding for the Prejeunes programme was mobilized from key donors, indicating the strategic importance of this programme not only for protecting children from violence and supporting their reintegration after their release from the armed groups, but also for Haiti's future stability since the programme seeks to find credible, sustainable alternatives for these children to prevent them from reverting back to violence. It will be important to sustain and scale up this funding in 2026, and ensure it also helps to strengthen social welfare and juvenile justice systems in Haiti.
Cross‑sectoral enablers remain similarly underfunded, limiting the systems required for safe, accountable, and effective humanitarian delivery. These shortfalls jeopardize core protection services, community engagement, and risk‑communication capacities essential for reaching vulnerable children in high‑risk environments.
UNICEF Haiti expresses deep gratitude to all partners. Flexible, unearmarked, and multi‑year funding remains especially critical for maintaining continuity of life‑saving services in one of the world’s most complex humanitarian settings.
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
In 2025, Haiti experienced a significant escalation in armed group violence, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Armed groups continued to launch attacks in the metropolitan area of Port-auPrince (ZMPP) and spilled over into the Artibonite and Centre departments The violence triggered the displacement of more than 120,000 individuals. Notably, the armed group takeover of the towns of Mirebalais and Saut d’Eau in the Centre department in March and April 2025 had resulted in the creation of 95 spontaneous internally displaced persons (IDP) sites. In Artibonite, repeated armed groups attacks between April and May 2025 in the commune of Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite resulted in at least 50 people killed and the displacement of thousands. An estimated 90 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is under armed group control.
Persistent armed group violence continues to drive Haiti’s displacement crisis. According to the IOM/DTM Round 11 (September 2025) figures4 , 1.4 million Haitians, or 12 per cent of the total population, are displaced, representing a 36 per cent increase since December 2024. The number of displaced children has also risen by 34 per cent over the same period, from 551,000 to more than 740,000. The number of sites has increased substantially, from 142 sites in 2024 to 238 sites in September 2025; nonetheless, the majority of IDPs (85 per cent) are hosted outside of sites or in host families. Notably, IDP sites in the provinces now exceed those in ZMPP (141 to 97 sites), indicating that armed group violence has expanded beyond the capital area.
The humanitarian crisis is further compounded by food insecurity, with nearly 5.7 million people, or over half the population, experiencing or will likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) between September 2025 and February 2026, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) findings released in October 20255 . This includes 1.9 million people facing Emergency levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 4).
Forced return of Haitians have also seen a significant increase in 2025. According to IOM, a total of 270,214 people were forcibly returned to Haiti from neighbouring countries in 2025, including 24,714 children. The overall number of people forcibly returned represents a 37 per cent increase from 2024, indicating that forced returns of Haitians continue to increase at a rapid pace.
Natural disasters have also accentuated Haiti’s humanitarian needs in 2025. In addition to heavy rains in May 2025 in the Northeast department, which led to the inundation of an estimated 3,900 homes and affecting more than 4,300 families, Haiti was struck by Hurricane Melissa in October and November 2025, resulting in severe flooding, landslides and extensive infrastructure damage especially in the southern departments (South, Southeast, Nippes, Grand’Anse departments). As a result, 46 people (including 7 children) lost their lives, more than 250,000 people were directly affected by the hurricane, according to the General Directorate of Civil Protection (DGPC). In addition, more than 4,400 schools were affected (impacting the education of more than 127,000 children) and about 13,300 latrines and 63 drinking water systems were damaged.
Cholera remains a significant concern. In 20256 , cholera outbreaks affected more than half of the country’s ten departments, confirming near-generalized transmission. A total of 3,664 suspected cases, 256 confirmed cases and 71 deaths were reported nationwide, including 37 institutional deaths and 34 community deaths. Mortality was primarily concentrated in the West department (43 deaths), followed by the Southeast department (15 deaths) and the Centre department (8 deaths). Artibonite reported eight deaths. Beyond the Grand Nord departments, significant outbreaks were also observed in the Southeast department, particularly in the communes of Bainet, Marigot, Belle-Anse, Grand-Gosier and Thiotte, following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, resulting in more than 120 suspected cases and 11 deaths. These outbreaks highlight the major vulnerabilities of areas exposed to climate shocks.
The exacerbation of humanitarian needs is taking place in the context of a collapse in essential services. Only 41 per cent of health facilities with beds in Port-au-Prince remain functional7 , 1,606 schools were closed during the 2024-2025 academic year (depriving 243,000 children of learning and affecting 7,500 teachers)8 , and 1.3 million people urgently need life-saving WASH services..
Children and women continue to bear the brunt of this multi-faceted crisis. Between January and September 2025, over 7,400 cases of gender-based violence (GBV) were reported in Haiti – representing a 38 per cent increase of cases compared to the same period in 2024. 76 per cent of GBV victims were women and 14 per cent were girls under the age of 18. Of the 7,400 total cases, 56 per cent were comprised of sexual violence cases. Armed group rapes accounted for 65 per cent of all reported cases of sexual violence.