January 12, 2010 to January 12, 2026 marks sixteen (16) years since a devastating earthquake struck several cities across the country, causing enormous human and material losses and permanently altering the landscape of the Ouest Department, which was the area most severely affected by this catastrophe.
Since then, the shelter and relocation sites that were built at the time to accommodate people left homeless have never disappeared. However, those who lost everything as a result of the earthquake have since been replaced by internally displaced persons fleeing armed violence, with the exception of those from Petit Goâve who, for their part, were victims of Hurricane Melissa, which struck the commune on October 29, 2025.
Today, on the occasion of the sixteenth anniversary of the January 12, 2010 earthquake, the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) considers it necessary to draw attention to the conditions in which internally displaced persons are living within the country.
