Haiti adrift: gangs turn Port-au-Prince into their “battlefield”

The clashes between gangs They have paralyzed and bloodied a sector of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, whose population suffers from rampant inflation and severe fuel shortages that complicate crucial humanitarian aid.

Since last Friday, blasts of firearms can be heard throughout the day in Cité Soleila poor and densely populated neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where two rival factions clash as police, understaffed and equipment, stand by.

Only in the last week the clashes resulted in at least 89 deaths, 16 are missing and 74 injured by bullets or knives, according to the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights.

In the slums that have sprung up there over the past four decades, thousands of families have no choice but to take refuge in their homeswithout being able to stock up on food or water.

Death

Some residents fall victim to stray bullets even inside their precarious sheet metal houses, but ambulances cannot circulate freely in the area to help the wounded.

“We ask all belligerents to allow the passage of aid to Brooklyn”Cité Soleil area where violence is concentrated, “and to save the lives of civilians”, Mumuza Muhindo, the head of the local mission of Doctors Without Borders, asked Wednesday.

The NGO, hindered in its evacuation of victims, has been caring for an average of 15 injured a day since Fridayin his hospital near Cité Soleil.

“Along the only road to Brooklyn, we found decaying or burned bodies,” Muhindo added.

“It could be the people killed in the fighting or trying to escape who are killed. It’s a real battlefield. “

These deadly gang clashes affect businesses across the capital, such as in Cité Soleil is the oil terminal which feeds Port-au-Prince and northern Haiti.

Not a drop of petrol It is being filled at the capital’s gas stations, which has triggered fuel prices on the black market.

Angry motorcycle taxi drivers erected several barricades on the main streets of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday.

Within the neighborhoods it was only possible to make short trips on motorcycles, AFP journalists were able to verify.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the capital struggled to organize their daily activities, themselves hindered by the risk of kidnapping.

For more than two years, the gangs multiplied the kidnappings in the cityaddressing people of all socio-economic backgrounds and of any nationality.

violence and kidnappings

Enjoying widespread impunity, criminal gangs have stepped up their activities in recent weeks: at least 155 kidnappings were recorded in June compared to May, which scored at least 118, the Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research said in its latest report released Wednesday.

Many Haitians flee to the Dominican Republic or the United States. Others, without financial means or visas, risk their lives by embarking on makeshift boats in the hope of reaching Florida.

While many others are stranded on Cuban or Bahamian coasts or detained at sea by the US Coast Guard.

More than 1,200 irregular migrants were repatriated to Haiti only in June, they show the statistics of the national office for migration.

And when you’ll return, they find it difficult to surviveaccepting informal jobs in this country where annual inflation broke the 20% barrier three years ago.

Economists warn that this rate could exceed 30% later this year due to the impact of the war in Ukraine on the world economy.

“There is a significant increase in hunger in the capital and the south of the country, with Port-au-Prince being the hardest hit, ”said Jean-Martin Bauer, director of the World Food Program (WFP) in Haiti on Tuesday.

The United Nations agency uses air and sea routes to send aid to the south and north of the country, to avoid the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, in the hands of the clans.

Close half of Haiti’s 11 million inhabitants have food security problemsof which 1.3 million are facing a humanitarian emergency that precedes the famine, according to the classification of the WFP.

AFP agency

PB