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First Post
04-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
‘Freedom or death': Protesters in Haiti demand new government as gang violence grips Port-au-Prince
Dozens of protesters marched up the hills of Haiti's capital on Sunday demanding an end to persistent gang violence as they called on the country's prime minister and transitional presidential council to resign. read more A soldier carries out an anti-gang operation in the Kenscoff neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 3, 2025. Image- AP Dozens of protesters marched through the hills of Haiti's capital on Sunday, voicing their demands for an end to escalating gang violence and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the transitional presidential council. The protest, which reflects growing frustration over the surge in violence as gangs attempt to take full control of Port-au-Prince, highlighted the deepening crisis facing the nation. 'The only thing the Haitian people are asking for is security,' said Eric Jean, a 42-year-old bus driver, marching with a Haitian flag around his neck. 'We're losing more neighborhoods, more people are dying, more people are fleeing their homes.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Marc Étienne, a 39-year-old businessman whose livelihood was destroyed by gang raids, also joined the protest. He now lives in a makeshift camp, alongside tens of thousands of others forced to flee their homes after gangs ravaged their communities. 'Haiti cannot be run among friends,' he said. 'The city is dying because the (council) is not doing anything to make it better.' Sunday's demonstration comes a day after hundreds of people gathered in Port-au-Prince to honor several community leaders killed in recent clashes with gangs. 'Freedom or death!' the mourners shouted on Saturday as the leaders of the Canapé-Vert neighborhood entered a small stadium where the memorial was held. Videos posted on social media showed the leaders carrying automatic weapons and wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of those killed. Many wore balaclavas to cover their faces and protect themselves from possible retaliation by gangs. Clad in white, the mourners raised their fists and clutched hands in the air as a man on stage roared in Haitian Creole, 'The blood is not going to be shed in vain! The fight is what?' 'Just beginning!' the crowd answered in unison. The unidentified man on stage said the community would never forget the slain leaders as he condemned gang violence. 'People are dying, and they don't even know why they're dying,' he said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Canapé-Vert is one of the few neighborhoods that has yet to fall to gangs that control at least 85% of the capital. It also is known for having one of Port-au-Prince's most powerful neighborhood organizations, led in part by frustrated police officers. In early April, Canapé-Vert leaders organized a large protest that became violent as they, too, demanded that Haiti's prime minister and its transitional presidential council resign. Sunday's demonstration and other recent protests have decried the country's spiraling crisis, with more than 1,600 people killed and another 580 injured from January to March. In mid-March, hundreds of people armed with sticks and machetes, accompanied by members of an armed environmental brigade, successfully ousted more than 100 suspected gang members that had seized control of a Catholic school, according to a new report issued by the U.N. political mission in Haiti. But the ouster is only one of a handful of successful fights against powerful gangs backed by certain politicians and some of Haiti's elite. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Last year, more than 5,600 people across Haiti were killed, according to the U.N. Gang violence also has left more than one million people homeless in recent years. Gunmen in recent months have targeted once peaceful neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince that would give them easy access to Pétion-Ville, a residential area where banks, embassies and other institutions are located. In a February attack on Delmas 30, gunmen 'indiscriminately fired on the population in the neighborhood, killing 21 men and injuring eight others,' according to the U.N. report. In a separate attack on a nearby neighborhood where the French embassy is located, at least 30 people were killed, many of whom were traveling in small colorful buses known as tap taps, according to the report. Other victims include at least 15 people who were family members of police officers. Gangs also have attacked multiple communities in Haiti's central Artibonite region, killing adults and small children as they fled. 'The indiscriminate and brutal nature of some of these attacks shows the gang's strategy to spread panic and reduce the resistance of the local population,' according to the BINUH report. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Meanwhile, Haiti's National Police, bolstered by a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police, has struggled in its fight against gangs as the mission remains underfunded and understaffed, with only 1,000 personnel of the 2,500 envisioned. In a push to crack down on gangs, the U.S. government on Friday officially designated Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang coalition, and Gran Grif, the largest gang to operate in Haiti's central region, as foreign terror organisations. Critics warn the move could affect aid organisations working in Haiti at a critical time, since many are forced to negotiate with gangs to supply people with basic goods including food and water. With inputs from agencies
Voice of America
06-03-2025
- Health
- Voice of America
Racked by violence, Haiti faces 'humanitarian catastrophe,' aid group says
Haiti is facing a "humanitarian catastrophe" as it reels from a surge in violence that is forcing people from their homes and pushing overstretched health facilities to the brink, Doctors Without Borders said Thursday. The crisis-torn Caribbean nation has seen new unrest in recent weeks as gangs battle police for territory, leading United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups to warn last month of a "wave of extreme brutality" sweeping the country. The fighting has left civilians trapped in the crossfire, overwhelmed hospitals and raised fears of a new cholera epidemic in a nation devastated by the disease in the 2010s, said Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French initialism, RSF. Last week, the medical aid group's teams treated 90 victims of violence — double the usual number — at its emergency center in the Turgeau neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, it said. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, was plunged into fresh unrest last year when gangs launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince to force then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign. The interim government and a Kenya-led U.N. force have struggled to restore order. Armed groups control 85% of the capital, according to UNICEF. With an estimated 1 million people forced from their homes by violence, there are fears of disease outbreaks in makeshift camps for the displaced. "The scale of this crisis far exceeds what MSF can respond to alone," the group's mission chief in Haiti, Christophe Garnier, said in a statement. With the rainy season approaching, sanitation conditions are worsening, MSF said. "Without urgent action, the situation will turn into a humanitarian catastrophe," said Garnier.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Racked by violence, Haiti faces 'humanitarian catastrophe': MSF
Haiti is facing a "humanitarian catastrophe" as it reels from a surge in violence that is forcing people from their homes and pushing overstretched health facilities to the brink, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Thursday. The crisis-torn Caribbean nation has seen new unrest in recent weeks as gangs battle police for territory, leading United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups to warn last month of a "wave of extreme brutality" sweeping the country. The fighting has left civilians trapped in the crossfire, overwhelmed hospitals and raised fears of a new cholera epidemic in a nation devastated by the disease in the 2010s, MSF said. Last week, the medical aid group's teams treated 90 victims of violence -- double the usual number -- at its emergency center in the Turgeau neighborhood of capital Port-au-Prince, it said. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, was plunged into fresh unrest last year when gangs launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince, to force then-prime minister Ariel Henry to resign. The interim government and a Kenya-led UN force have struggled to restore order. Armed groups now control 85 percent of the capital, according to UNICEF. With an estimated one million people forced from their homes by violence, there are fears of disease outbreaks in makeshift camps for the displaced. "The scale of this crisis far exceeds what MSF can respond to alone," the group's mission chief in Haiti, Christophe Garnier, said in a statement. With the rainy season approaching, sanitation conditions are only worsening, MSF said. "Without urgent action, the situation will turn into a humanitarian catastrophe," said Garnier. sdu-jhb/mlm
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Extreme brutality': UN, aid groups warn Haiti unrest soaring
Haiti has seen a "wave of extreme brutality" in recent weeks, with numerous killings and thousands forced to flee their homes, a consortium of UN agencies, NGOs and donors is warning. "Entire families have been brutally wiped out in their homes, while others, including children and babies, have been shot dead as they tried to escape," the group, organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement Monday. Gangs control large portions of Haiti, including the majority of the capital, and violence has soared despite the arrival of hundreds of police personnel as part of a Kenya-led multinational security support mission (MSS). "We are deeply alarmed and dismayed by the unacceptable and inhuman intensity of the violence raging in Haiti, a wave of extreme brutality which, since the end of January, has resulted in the loss of many lives," the group said. It said 4,000 people had been forced to flee the Kenscoff area of the capital, along with 2,000 more from the Delmas, Port-au-Prince and Petion-ville municipalities. The group called on "all parties involved in this violence to break this cycle of terror and put an end to this uncontrolled spiral." Fresh attacks occurred late Monday nights, said residents of two neighborhoods in the capital. "They set fire to our house with my father inside. It's cruel," a resident who managed to flee the area told AFP. Another said the attack came early in the morning as vigilante security forces were resting. "The bandits attacked us by surprise," she said. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, has long been mired in instability, but conditions severely worsened early last year when gangs launched coordinated attacks in the capital to force then-prime minister Ariel Henry to resign. He handed power to an interim government, which along with the MSS has struggled to wrest back control from the gangs. The UN-approved MSS has around 1,000 personnel from six nations, though mostly from Kenya, out of 2,500 initially expected. One Kenyan officer died after being shot on Sunday. UN officials have repeatedly called for more support for the mission and a surge of resources to the nation, where an estimated one million people have been displaced by the violence. Last week, the UN launched an appeal for over $900 million in aid for Haiti this year, a sharp increase from 2024, which was only 44-percent funded. The UN recorded 5,600 deaths linked to gang violence last year, in a 20-percent increase compared to 2023, as well as 1,500 kidnappings, nearly 6,000 gender-based violence cases, 69 percent of which were instances of sexual assault. On Monday, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said authorities were "at war" with the gangs. "We are relentlessly committed to enabling the police, the army and MSS to put gangs out of action," he promised in a speech to mark his 100 days in office. str-abo/aem/des/md
The Guardian
23-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Haiti's deepening crisis: abandoning people when they most need support
A year ago, it seemed that Haiti had hit rock bottom. Violence had exploded and conditions had deteriorated following President Jovenel Moïse's assassination in 2021. Then, last February, gangs banded together to free thousands of prisoners, besiege airports and police stations, and demand that Haiti's unpopular replacement leader departed. Ariel Henry was ousted, but the nation has only spiralled further into crisis. Violence intensified again towards the end of last year. Armed criminals control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Already desperate circumstances have become much more so: more than a million people – around one in 10 of the population – have now been displaced, triple the level a year ago. Half are experiencing acute food insecurity. At least 5,600 people were killed in gang violence last year. The United Nations says that sexual violence against children has risen tenfold; many are being forcibly recruited into organised crime. The kidnap and murder of health workers has put around two-thirds of medical facilities out of use. Even commercial flights have largely halted after gangs opened fire on planes. Amid all this, the United States announced on Thursday that it is scrapping temporary protection from deportation for half a million Haitians in the US, meaning that they could be removed by August. That's hardly a surprise given the vile lies about Haitian migrants spread by President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance in last year's election. And some deportations continued even under the Biden administration. But the announcement is no less appalling for that – and all the more so given the role of the US in the nation's troubles over the years. A country born in such hope, in the uprising of enslaved people, has never shaken off the impact of the devastating reparations France imposed for its freedom and the years of foreign occupation and meddling that followed. Last spring was supposed to mark a turning point for the country, with the arrival of a UN-backed and largely Kenyan-staffed security support mission, and the move to a transitional government supposed to pave the way for elections next year – more than a decade after the last polls. But the council, which contains just one token representative of civil society, has been beset by self-interested struggles, and three of its nine members face corruption charges but refuse to resign. The security mission has less than half the personnel initially envisaged, has failed to make an impact, and now Mr Trump has frozen US funding for it. A new report by the International Crisis Group warns that elections cannot be held safely under current circumstances, and that pressing ahead with them might fuel further violence by gangs attempting to push their cronies into power. It argues that the priority for the transitional council must be focusing on basic governance. Meanwhile, every possible legal avenue to extend protection from deportation for Haitians in the US must be employed. The US must do more to cut off the flow of arms in breach of the embargo. Humanitarian support for the nation, always inadequate and now hit by Trump administration cuts, must be properly backed. The UN's 2024 appeal was less than half funded, leaving millions of people unsupported. With the need now far greater, it is asking for $900m. That is the least that is owed to Haitians.
