After several private and public entities announced the suspension of face-to-face classes due to rising insecurity and gang violence, the Justice Department called on the police to act quickly to restore a climate of safety that favors the continuity of the classes.
At least six inner-city schools publicly announced the closure, some of them going online.
The decision was made after the kidnapping of a father and his daughter and a teacher near educational institutions in this capital.
In addition, the Justice Department confirmed that it had received reports of people extorting schools, businesses and other entities, and warned that the authors, co-authors and accomplices of threats and kidnappings will be prosecuted and punished.
The portfolio also recognized that the current violence is indiscriminate and unprecedented, and called for citizen resistance.
The insecurity that has skyrocketed in Haiti following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in mid-2021 is particularly affecting the education system, which has already suffered from political unrest, demonstrations, the fuel crisis and the economic recession.
In addition to schools, at least three major hospitals have closed or significantly reduced their services due to the increase in violence and the number of kidnappings, killings and gang fighting for territorial control.
This is the case with the Gheskio centers in the capital, which treat infectious diseases, the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Artibonite, which treats more than 700,000 people, and more recently the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Cité Soleil.
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