Sao Paulo
Hopes for the international mission approved at the United Nations in October to help the Haitian National Police combat the rampant urban security crisis plaguing the Caribbean country appear to be fading by the day. The reason is recent events in Kenya, the African country that agreed to lead the operation.
In the latest chapter of a legal battle that gained momentum with the Security Council’s green light for the support mission, Kenya’s Supreme Court late Thursday (16) extended an earlier order temporarily banning the deployment of a thousand Kenyan police officers to Haiti.
The decision came just hours after the country’s parliament approved President William Ruto’s government’s request to deploy security forces in Nairobi in a heated debate.
The problem lies in the kind of domino effect that the situation in Kenya can create. So far, only African countries such as Burundi and Chad, as well as Central American Belize and Caribbean Jamaica, have offered to send men to take part in the mission.
Those involved expected that more countries would be ready once Nairobi began sending men.
It turns out that the plan, which was supposed to start in January, is currently undefined. Kenya’s Supreme Court said it would not issue a new ruling until January 26, delaying any possibility of deploying the multinational force to support Haiti.
In New York, home of the Security Council, debates on this issue are at a standstill and await a solution. Meanwhile, parallel bilateral negotiations are underway with Brazil, which wants to offer Haitians police training, but without sending troops.
The legal action in the country on the East African coast was brought by opposition politician Ekuru Aukot, who says the local constitution only allows military personnel to be sent abroad, not civilian police, making the government’s actions unconstitutional.
He accused the parliamentarians who supported the mission of “disregarding a court order.” “Our Parliament sold its soul to the United States to clean up the mess it caused in Haiti,” he wrote in X.
Joe Biden’s administration is the main sponsor of plans to send a mission to support the Haitian National Police, although it will not send men, only money. Most of the weapons that penetrate Haiti’s sea and land borders, which have little or no protection, come from the USA. The United States is also the main destination for Haitian migrants seeking to escape the humanitarian crisis.
The death of the G9 leader intensifies the armed dispute over territory
In Haiti, the timing of this uncertainty couldn’t be worse. The wave of violence ravaging the capital PortauPrince, whose territory is largely controlled by gangs and under the dysfunctional government symbolized by Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has escalated again in recent days.
The trigger was the death of Iskar Andrice, one of the leaders of the G9 gang coalition that controlled the Belekou region in the municipality of Cité Soleil, one of the poorest in the capital. The episode opened a new front of the territorial dispute with the coalition against the G9, GPèp, led by Gabriel JeanPierre, Ti Gabriel.
According to a recent and detailed report by a UN mission on the ground, Iskar, a professor of mathematics and physics, is involved in crimes such as murder, extortion, rape, theft of goods and trucks. In order to get closer to the community in which he worked and to balance the income, he even founded a social foundation.
He led the G9 coalition along with former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, known as Barbecue. And the circumstances of his death were not further explained by the gangs or local authorities.
According to the United Nations, the G9 includes around a thousand men, mostly former police officers, former security forces and street children the recruitment of minors is a common practice among local gangs.
Last July, a Catholic mission brokered a “peace commitment” drawn up and signed between three G9 leaders, two of them Iskar and Barbecue, and one from GPèp, Ti Gabriel. In the document they promised to “work hard to end the violence and establish peace.” Time showed that the engagement was shortlived.
The chaos in a hospital in Cité Soleil on Wednesday (15) was symbolic of the escalation of violence. More than a hundred patients, half of them children, had to be evacuated from Fontaine Hospital Center, a community clinic, after a gang dispute set several houses around the building on fire, endangering the building.
With the hospital now closed, the only place where patients can be treated is an emergency hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which was also forced to close a nearby outpatient clinic during this time due to the violence.
In a statement on Friday, MSF said it had treated dozens of people injured by the gangs’ actions, drawing particular attention to pregnant women who were sent earlier to give birth at the Fontaine hospital, a possibility closed.
According to the research organization Crisis Group, which also operates in the country, the clashes following Iskar’s death forced at least a thousand Haitians to leave their homes in just four days.
The UN says that in three months, from July 1 to September 30, 1,239 homicides were recorded in Haiti, more than double the 577 homicides in the same period in 2022. During this period, more than 700 people were kidnapped, an increase of 244% compared to the previous year.
During a recent visit to the country, independent U.N. human rights expert William O’Neill said local violence had “sacrificed an entire generation of Haitians.”
Among other things, he drew attention to the prison and justice system. According to O’Neill, juvenile prisons are filled to over 350% of capacity and 99% of the minors incarcerated have not been convicted but are awaiting extended detention there. “They get arrested for stealing a chicken, a pair of shoes, or a cell phone without even having a chance to see a judge.”
The investigation into the president’s death is making slow progress
The spiral of violence in Haiti intensified after President Jovenel Moïse, known as the “Banana Man” for his wealth and involvement in fruit farming, was shot dead in his home in 2021.
Due to the dysfunctionality of Haitian institutions, including the justice sector, the American government took over part of the investigations taking place in South Florida.
So far, 11 people have been charged in the US and three have pleaded guilty, including a Colombian mercenary. The main line of investigation points to the possibility that a security company operating in Florida sponsored the president’s assassination with the aim of profiting from possible security contracts to be signed with the government that would replace him.
However, the name of the mastermind behind the crime remains unclear. On Haitian territory, the weakened police primarily believe that it is Joseph Félix Badio, a former military officer who was arrested just last October. Despite his detention, he has not yet been formally charged with murder or other crimes.