Haiti’s main seaport — the Port International de Port-au-Prince — suspended operations on March 7, 2024 after being attacked and looted by armed gangs, cutting off the maritime supply chain that delivered food, fuel, medicine, and consumer goods to a country heavily dependent on imports. The simultaneous closure of the seaport and the international airport left Port-au-Prince effectively cut off from normal international commerce at a moment of acute humanitarian need.
The port attack was not spontaneous but appeared coordinated, with gang members moving into dock areas and warehouses and removing goods that represented millions of dollars in commercial and humanitarian cargo. Humanitarian supplies destined for distribution to displaced and food-insecure populations were among the goods stolen, compounding the humanitarian emergency that the gang offensive had created.
The port closure had immediate cascading effects across the entire economy. Businesses that imported goods through the port had their supply chains severed. Fuel importers who depended on maritime delivery found themselves unable to bring in supplies that powered generators, vehicles, and water systems. The price of goods that had been in the import pipeline before the closure began rising as scarcity increased.
The dual closure of port and airport created a siege-like condition for Port-au-Prince that had no modern precedent. A city of several million people, dependent on both maritime and air imports for essential goods, was cut off from its supply chains by criminal organizations that the state had no capacity to dislodge. The humanitarian consequences — predictable and predicted — were severe and immediate.