crime
Reports: Gangs attack government buildings in Haiti
Police secure a roadblock set up by protesters in Port-au-Prince. photo
© Odelyn Joseph/AP/dpa
Haiti’s powerful gangs want to overthrow the interim government. Because of their violence, the head of government cannot return from a trip abroad. Now, according to the media, the National Palace is being attacked.
Violence has paralyzed Port-au-Prince for over a week. Police stations were attacked and shots were fired at the airport – all flights were canceled. The health system was on the brink of collapse, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Wednesday. According to him, more than 4,500 prisoners escaped in attacks on two prisons last Saturday. According to a report by the “AyiboPost” portal, the notoriously understaffed police hardly had any presence on the streets of the capital.
Half of the population suffers from acute hunger
The humanitarian situation in Haiti was already very tense. According to the UN, almost half of the Caribbean country’s eleven million residents suffered from acute hunger, and various brutal gangs controlled a total of around 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. Now the two main armed groups joined forces. Their leader, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, threatened civil war if interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry did not resign.
He had agreed to hold elections by the end of August 2025. They would be the first in Haiti since Henry took over government shortly after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. Henry has apparently not returned from a trip abroad because of the security situation.
Security mission approved by the UN Security Council
The US government called on him to speed up the process towards elections. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for financing a multinational security mission in Haiti that had already been approved by the UN Security Council.