Civil society groups reject Haiti prime minister’s call for foreign intervention, warning not to ‘repeat same mistakes’.
With violence gripping the streets of Port-au-Prince and no neighbourhood spared from the insecurity wrought by armed gangs or critical shortages of fuel, virtually everyone in Haiti’s capital is living in a state of uncertainty, says resident Judes Jonathas.
“We don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” Jonathas, senior programme manager at the Mercy Corps humanitarian group in Haiti, recently told Al Jazeera in a video call, describing how not a day had gone by in the past week in which he hadn’t heard gunshots ring out.
“It’s as if we’re living minute to minute. We go out, we don’t know if we’ll be coming back.”
Haiti, which has faced years of political instability, is in the middle of a deepening crisis as powerful gangs recently seized control of a key petrol terminal in Port-au-Prince, cutting residents and healthcare facilities off from much-needed supplies.
Last week, acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry appealed to the international community to set up a “specialised armed force” to quell the violence, but civil society groups and rights advocates have said Henry has no legitimacy — and they have rejected the prospect of foreign intervention.
“There is frustration, there is anger, there is resignation … it’s across all classes [of people],” said Jonathas, about the worsening conditions. “Most Haitians are traumatised.”
unfolding across the country as a result of the gangs.
The Caribbean nation this month reported its first cholera cases in more than three years, and rights groups said the fuel blockade was impeding healthcare workers’ response. Many communities do not have access to clean water, already-high rates of hunger are set to worsen, and about 1.2 million children are at risk due to the cholera outbreak.
Bocchit Edmond, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, recently told the Reuters news agency that he hoped the US and Canada would “take the lead and move fast” on the country’s call for help.
