With no sign that the promised transitional council that would bring in international troops and help restore order will be implemented, those Haitians who can are already trying to flee the country.
Violent gangs took control of most of the capital, killed thousands of people and forced millions of people to face acute hunger.
“Every day is a matter of life and death,” said Pierre Joseph, a 34-year-old worker for the charity Save the Children, according to a statement from the organization itself.
The institution reports that the employee was forced to leave two different homes with his wife and a six-month-old baby, and that he has had difficulty finding basic supplies.
“For the first time we are facing a crisis where nothing is working, where the government is simply not working,” he said, adding that food and energy supplies have collapsed.
“Everyone is scared and leaving the country.”
Port-au-Prince's airport and ports have been closed for a month due to gang activity, although the airport in the northern Cape Haitian city resumed flights to Miami last week, prompting many of those who can to try to leave the country. .
Neighboring countries have increased security on the border, including the Dominican Republic, the only one that has a land border with Haiti. The nation vetoed the establishment of refugee camps on its territory and deported tens of thousands of people.
This Thursday (4), the Dominican Foreign Minister, Roberto Alvares, told the BBC that around 10,000 soldiers were deployed along the 400 km border, at a “high cost” to the national budget and damaging trade. International.
Haiti has no elected representatives and has been relegated to a state of anarchy, with gangs almost completely expanding their control in the capital.
Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation on March 11, with worsening violence preventing his return from abroad. The condition for his departure was the installation of a transition council made up of regional leaders, who would choose his replacement.
In 2022, Henry called for an international force to help the police restore order, but the process has been delayed and suspended until the council is installed.
Soldiers from the Bahamas and Belize traveled to Jamaica last month to be trained by a Canadian task force to support the deployment of Caribbean Community troops to Haiti.
“This is just another iteration in the ongoing efforts to ensure that regional forces are proficient, integrated and prepared for any contingencies that may arise in the region,” said Jamaica Defense Force Lieutenant Colonel Kevron Henry.
Alvarez said military intelligence suggests many recruits were forced into gangs out of economic necessity and threats of violence.
The new provisional council would need to secure “hard money” to fund intelligence and police equipment in Haiti, he added.
“I certainly didn’t say it would be easy, but I believe it is possible; the national police still exist,” she said.
Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in international pledges, little has been delivered to the UN security mission trust fund. Meanwhile, the gangs benefit from extortion, the payment of ransoms and the alleged support of corrupt elites that have allowed them to accumulate a vast arsenal.
Source: CNN Brasil
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