A man walks past the body of a police officer killed amid ongoing gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 20 March 2024. Negotiations to form a transitional council to govern Haiti advanced on 20 March, as the United States airlifted more citizens to safety from gang violence that has plunged the impoverished country into chaos. (Clarens Siffroy / AFP)
- Haiti’s gangs
have made advances in Port-au-Prince, with many people displaced as gangs
“take over” neighbourhoods in the city. - Negotiations for
the formation of a transition government have been slow despite pressure from neighbouring
countries and the US. - The UN Security
Council has called on countries to enforce an existing arms embargo on Haiti to
prevent the illicit flow of arms and ammunition into the country.
Haiti’s gangs have made advances in Port-au-Prince,
a UN official reported Thursday, with political parties inching toward forming
a transition government and new bloodshed roiling the troubled Caribbean
nation.
Police in
Port-au-Prince confirmed that a major gang leader, Ernst Julme, known as Ti
Greg, was slain in a clash with security forces. Julme led the Delmas 95 gang.
Addressing
a news conference from Haiti via video link, Ulrika Richardson, the UN
humanitarian coordinator for the country, said daily life had become defined by
roadblocks and the sound of gunshots, describing “enormous” amounts
of people displaced as gangs “take over” neighbourhoods in the city.
The country
has been rocked by violence since late February, when the country’s gangs
launched a coordinated offensive, raiding a prison and releasing thousands of
inmates as they demanded Prime Minister Ariel Henry resign.
Henry,
stranded in Puerto Rico after the violence shut down the main airport, has
since agreed to step down and allow the formation of an interim government. But
negotiations have been slow despite pressure from neighbouring Caribbean
countries and the United States.
READ | Unicef head says Haiti chaos ‘almost like a scene out of “Mad Max”‘
Meanwhile,
police are struggling as armed groups in recent days “advanced into new
areas of the capital,” Richardson told reporters.
“We
see people coming in with gunshot wounds from many areas around
Port-au-Prince.”
Richardson’s
comments came as gunshots were again ringing out in Port-au-Prince and the
hilly neighbouring suburb of Petion-ville on Thursday afternoon, residents told
AFP.
The day
prior, in the town of Lascahobas, some 80 kilometres from the capital, Haitian
police said an alleged gang member was taken from their custody by an angry mob
and lynched.
‘Illicit flow of
arms’
The UN
Security Council called on countries to enforce an existing arms embargo on
Haiti, amid “grave concern at the illicit flow of arms and ammunition into
Haiti that remains a fundamental factor of instability and violence.”
“The
members of the Security Council reiterated their full support for a
Haitian-led, Haitian-owned political process,” the Security Council
statement said, urging the eventual organisation of “free and fair
legislative and presidential elections.”
President
Jovenel Moise, who appointed Henry, was assassinated in 2021 and never
replaced. Henry has led the country since, with no elections held since 2016.
The
transitional council currently being organised would name an interim prime
minister to oversee a national vote.
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But the
council, comprising representatives of Haitian political parties, is struggling
to take shape.
After
several days of tumultuous negotiations, all parties appeared to settle on a
choice of representative on Thursday. The left-wing Pitit Desalin party, which
had initially decided not to be represented, reversed its decision, according
to an AFP correspondent.
The aim of
the council is to put the country back on the road to stability, with 80 percent
of the capital and swaths of the countryside under gang control and many
ordinary Haitians already sceptical of the body.
Still, UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed “reports that Haitian
stakeholders have all nominated representatives to the transitional
Presidential Council,” a spokesperson said.
“He
calls for all efforts to maintain the momentum and cohesively work towards the
implementation of the transitional governance arrangements agreed upon.”
Meanwhile,
the head of the World Health Organization said the closure of Port-au-Prince’s
airport has made it impossible to import essential goods and medicine.
Tedros Ghebreyesus said:
The national port is operational, but accessing it is challenging, as the surrounding areas are controlled by gangs.
And an
ongoing cholera outbreak, “which has been declining since the end of last
year, could flare up again should the crisis continue,” he warned.
The United
States said that it evacuated 90 more citizens from Haiti on Thursday with a
government-organized aeroplane from the northern city of Cap-Haitien to Miami
and helicopter flights from Port-au-Prince to the neighbouring Dominican
Republic.
“We
reiterate our message to US citizens: Do not travel to Haiti,” a spokesperson
said.