PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 28 (Prensa Latina) – More than 15 social organizations called on the Haiti government to declare a state of emergency in the areas now controlled by the gangs and urged citizens to form neighborhood defense groups .
Platforms including the December 4th Collective, Sant Karl Lévèque, the Haitian Council of Non-State Actors and the Human Rights Lawyers Collective warned of the “staggering rise in terrorist groups” and the “appalling cruelty” of members of armed groups.
They pointed out that the gangs commit murders and massacres in the neighborhoods, rapes, robberies and kidnappings to ransom the undercapitalized population.
They also denounced the trauma suffered by students as schools and universities continued to close, homes and businesses were looted and police stations destroyed.
Faced with this situation, the organizations urged the government to seek help from any country willing and able to provide the necessary materials and equipment to fight banditry and terrorism in order to avoid civil war, they assured.
They also encouraged the authorities to accept the aid proposed by El Salvador and to ask the African Union for help.
Other figures, such as former diplomat Pierre Antoine Louis, are also campaigning for solidarity with African countries in the face of what they call a mockery of the nations that Haiti has been asking for help for the past year.
The politician believes the western powers have implicitly shown they are not concerned about the gangs’ terror and is currently working on a formal petition to the South African government, acknowledging that Rwanda could also help the small Caribbean nation.
More than 500 people have been killed and another 277 kidnapped in Haiti so far this year, according to a recent United Nations report, which reiterated calls for the international community to deploy specialized troops capable of containing the armed groups without a reaction .concretely so far.
lam/ane