In Port-au-Prince, gas stations stop handing out fuel, driving up prices on the black market. Angry at this situation, taxi motorcyclists erected several barricades on the capital’s main streets on Wednesday. ODELYN JOSEPH / AP
Soaring prices, fuel shortages and gang wars are worsening in Port-au-Prince, threatening the humanitarian aid vital to residents. “At least 89 people have been killed and 16 others are missing” in a week of gang clashes in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights said in a press release. The partial analysis of this violence also shows “74 injured by gunshots or stab wounds,” he adds.
In the Cité Soleil, the most disadvantaged and most densely populated municipality in the metropolitan region, machine gun fire has been crackling all day since Thursday: Two gang factions collide there without the police intervening for lack of people and equipment.
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Along the slum corridors that have been forming in the capital for forty years, thousands of families have no choice but to huddle in their homes without access to water and food. Some residents are victims of stray bullets even in their humble tin shelters, but ambulances are not allowed to circulate freely in the area to help the injured.
“We call on all belligerents to allow the passage of relief supplies to Brooklyn [nom du quartier de Cité Soleil où se concentrent les violences] and to protect civilians,” Mumuza Muhindo, head of operations at Médecins Sans Frontières, demanded on Wednesday.
The humanitarian organization, hampered in its operations to evacuate the victims, has nevertheless operated on an average of fifteen wounded a day since Friday at its hospital near the Cité Soleil. “We found rotting or burned corpses along the only road leading to Brooklyn,” added Mumuza Muhindo. These can be people who were killed in the clashes or who tried to flee and were shot at. It’s a real battlefield. »
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Gang wars, kidnappings
These deadly gang clashes disrupt activity throughout the capital, as Cité Soleil is home to the oil terminal that supplies Port-au-Prince and all of northern Haiti. Petrol stations throughout the capital no longer distribute a drop of fuel, which drives up prices on the black market drastically. Angered by the situation, motorcycle taxi drivers erected a series of barricades on Port-au-Prince’s main streets on Wednesday.
Given this spontaneous movement, only short trips by motorbike in the districts were possible. Faced with such dangers, residents of the capital struggle to organize their daily activities, already hampered by the risk of kidnapping.
For more than two years, gangs have multiplied malicious kidnappings across the city, confiscating people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and all nationalities.
The criminal gangs, which enjoy widespread impunity, have stepped up their actions over the weeks: at least 155 kidnappings were committed in June, up from 118 in May, the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights reported in its latest report, published on Wednesday has been published. a Haitian organization with consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
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The temptation to emigrate
Many Haitians are able to flee to the Dominican Republic or the United States. Many, without funds or visas, risk their lives boarding makeshift boats in hopes of reaching Florida. Many land on the Cuban or Bahamian coasts or are stopped at sea by the US Coast Guard.
According to statistics from the National Migration Agency, more than 1,200 irregular migrants were returned to Haiti in June alone. On their return, they rediscover their difficulties in surviving by finding small informal jobs in a country where annual inflation has exceeded 20% for three years. Given the consequences of the war in Ukraine for the global economy, that rate could top 30% by the end of the year, economists warn.
To avoid the outskirts of Port-au-Prince in gang hands, the UN agency uses air and sea routes to send aid to the south and north of the country. Almost half of the 11 million Haitians are already food insecure. 1.3 million of them are affected by a humanitarian emergency according to the classification of the World Food Program before a famine.
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