A fresh surge of gang violence in Haiti's Ouest and Artibonite departments has killed dozens and forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Armed groups set fire to houses and vehicles and looted shops in Cité Soleil (a densely populated shantytown on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince), with more than 2,000 newly displaced people now sheltering at the Shalom Church in the Delmas 33 neighbourhood. The violence is the latest escalation in five years of spiraling gang warfare that has gripped Haiti since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, with the WFP providing emergency food rations to displaced families who arrived with almost nothing.