Violence displaces over 1,300 in South-East department of Haiti: UN

More than 1,300 people have been newly displaced in the South-East department of Haiti following a surge in armed violence earlier this week, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.

Citing data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Dujarric told reporters that attacks on April 13 in the municipality of Marigot forced more than 1,300 people to flee their homes.

Dujarric said this was "the first time that displacement of this scale directly linked to armed attacks has been recorded in that department."

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), he said, is coordinating humanitarian assistance alongside local authorities and aid partners where conditions allow.

"However, ongoing insecurity and access constraints, combined with the scale of needs and limited funding, continue to affect the reach and pace of humanitarian assistance in affected areas," he added.

The $880 million Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti is just under 20% funded with $172 million received, he added.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said that more than half of all Haitians continue to face acute food insecurity. It called for support to protect recent fragile gains in the fight against hunger and to foster stability in the struggling Caribbean nation.