An update on conditions across Haiti and in the Cap-Haïtien and northern regions through July 2026

For many people outside Haiti, the country’s story in 2026 has been told primarily through headlines about gangs, political instability, hunger, and displacement. Those headlines reflect a very real crisis. Yet they do not tell the entire story. Across Haiti, families continue to care for displaced relatives, teachers continue to welcome children into classrooms, churches and local organizations continue to provide food, and communities continue finding ways to survive under extraordinarily difficult conditions.

The situation remains most severe in and around Port-au-Prince, but the effects now reach far beyond the capital. Northern Haiti, including Cap-Haïtien, has remained comparatively calmer than many areas. However, the north is increasingly carrying the weight of a national emergency through migration, rising food costs, pressure on schools and housing, forced returns from the Dominican Republic, and the loss of tourism income.

A worsening national humanitarian crisis

The United Nations estimates that approximately 6.4 million Haitians—more than half the population—will need humanitarian assistance during 2026. The crisis is being driven by armed violence, political instability, displacement, economic hardship, hunger, weakened public services, and Haiti’s continuing vulnerability to hurricanes and other natural disasters.  

Food remains one of the country’s most urgent concerns. An April 2026 analysis found that approximately 5.8 million people, or 52 percent of Haiti’s population, were experiencing crisis-level food insecurity or worse. More than 1.8 million were facing emergency levels of hunger, meaning families were exhausting their remaining resources and still could not meet their basic food needs.

The causes go well beyond a lack of food. Violence has disrupted transportation routes, increased fuel and distribution costs, separated farmers from markets, reduced employment, and made it more difficult for humanitarian organizations to reach vulnerable communities. When transportation and fuel costs rise, the price of rice, beans, cooking oil, and other basic foods rises with them.

Children are among those most affected. UNICEF reported that, at the beginning of 2026, approximately 2.6 million Haitian children needed humanitarian assistance. Hundreds of schools have experienced repeated closures, while attacks, looting, threats against teachers, and the displacement of families continue to interrupt education.

There is also increasing concern about children being recruited or exploited by armed groups. Poverty, hunger, separation from family, and the loss of safe schools make children especially vulnerable. Recent reporting indicates that armed groups are using food, shelter, small amounts of money, threats, and violence to recruit young people who have few alternatives.

Nearly 1.5 million people displaced

By May 2026, the International Organization for Migration estimated that 1,466,862 people were internally displaced within Haiti. About 79 percent of them were living outside the capital, usually with host families or in rented accommodations rather than in formal displacement camps. Food and livelihoods were identified as their most pressing needs.  This is important because displacement does not affect only the families who have fled. It also affects the communities receiving them.

A family in Cap-Haïtien or another northern community may already be struggling to provide food and pay school expenses for its own children. When relatives arrive from Port-au-Prince or another dangerous area, that same household may suddenly be supporting several additional people. Housing becomes more crowded, food is divided among more family members, and already limited incomes must stretch further.

The north has become one of the areas where people fleeing violence seek relative safety. That has helped protect many families, but it has also placed additional pressure on schools, churches, rental housing, health services, food supplies, and local charitable organizations.

Political uncertainty continues

Haiti has not had an elected president since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The mandate of the Transitional Presidential Council ended on February 7, 2026. Executive authority then passed to the Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, leaving the government responsible for improving security and preparing for long-delayed elections.  

There have recently been limited signs of political movement. On July 20, voter registration began in the capitals of nine of Haiti’s ten departments. Registration did not initially begin in the West Department, which includes Port-au-Prince, because of security and accessibility concerns. A credible election calendar has still not been completed, and insecurity remains the largest obstacle to restoring an elected government.

At the same time, armed violence has continued to expand beyond metropolitan Port-au-Prince into parts of Artibonite and other previously less affected areas. Nearly 1.5 million people remain displaced, and recent estimates indicate that thousands have been killed or injured since the beginning of the year.

What is happening in Cap-Haïtien and northern Haiti?

Cap-Haïtien—often called Okap—continues to function as one of Haiti’s most important cities. It serves as the economic, educational, cultural, transportation, and religious center of the north. The city and surrounding northern communities have not experienced the same degree of armed-group control seen in Port-au-Prince. Daily life continues, schools and churches remain active, markets operate, and local organizations continue serving their communities. However, northern Haiti is not isolated from the national crisis.

Forced returns through the northeast

One of the most important developments in northern Haiti during 2026 has been the growing number of Haitians forcibly returned from other countries, particularly the Dominican Republic. During the first six months of 2026, approximately 141,720 people were forcibly returned to Haiti, an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2025. The number arriving through the Ouanaminthe border crossing in northeast Haiti increased by approximately 58 percent.

Ouanaminthe is not Cap-Haïtien, but it is part of the broader northern region and is connected economically and socially to communities across the Nord and Nord-Est departments.

Many returnees arrive with few possessions, little money, and no secure place to live. Some have children with them, and some lack complete identification documents. Their arrival increases the need for temporary food, transportation, housing, medical care, and help reconnecting with family members.

A mixed transportation picture

There was one encouraging development in May 2026 when Haiti and the Dominican Republic agreed to reopen air travel between the two countries after a closure lasting more than two years. The resumed routes were expected to connect Dominican airports with Cap-Haïtien, improving mobility and offering some economic benefit to the north.

At the same time, the tourism picture remains difficult. Royal Caribbean announced in July that it was extending its suspension of cruise visits to Labadee, located west of Cap-Haïtien, through June 2027 because of continuing safety concerns in Haiti. Cruise ships have not called at Labadee since April 2025.  

Even though Labadee and much of the north remain calmer than Port-au-Prince, international travel decisions are based on conditions throughout Haiti and on the ability to provide emergency support if a problem occurs.

The continued closure affects more than tourists. It reduces income for workers, vendors, transportation providers, artisans, guides, and families whose livelihoods depend directly or indirectly on cruise activity.

Haiti is more than its crisis

Haiti’s challenges in 2026 are severe, and it would be wrong to minimize them. Millions are hungry. Families are being displaced. Children are losing access to education. Political institutions remain fragile, and armed violence continues to destroy lives.

But Haiti is not defined only by the forces harming it. It is also defined by parents sharing limited food with another family, teachers entering classrooms despite uncertainty, pastors and community leaders caring for vulnerable children, and Haitian partners continuing their work even when outside attention moves elsewhere.

In Cap-Haïtien and across northern Haiti, life continues. The needs are growing, but so is the importance of standing beside the people who have remained committed to their communities.

That is where Hearts for the Hungry continues to serve: working through trusted relationships, helping provide food and practical support, and reminding our friends in Haiti that they have not been forgotten.