(Port-au-Prince) Disillusioned with the political chaos that has prevailed for months, Haitians have, since the start of the week, been faced with an unbridled degradation of their living conditions because of the gangs that control access to oil terminals .
“We are in water rationing mode at home,” testifies panicked Daphne Bourgoin, 42 years old. “And for my children who have their lessons online, how long will the internet last?” “Asks the head of a textile company forced to close since Monday.
The Caribbean country has never produced enough electricity to meet the needs of its entire population and, in the better-off areas of the capital Port-au-Prince, the public company Électricité d’Haiti n ‘ensures a maximum supply of a few hours a day.
Those who can have equipped themselves with generators: expensive equipment useless today in the face of the serious fuel shortage caused by the armed gangs.
Lack of electricity and water
The lack of diesel also prevents private companies from ensuring water delivery by truck.
Because, as for electricity, the inhabitants have built autonomous systems at home, the public network of pipes not covering the whole of the metropolitan area.
Not benefiting from any privileged supply, the hospital structures are forced to drastically reduce their activities.
“There is no current in the hospital to operate the devices, there is no fuel, there is nothing”, testifies in Creole on the Internet Rachilde Joseph, medical student at Port au Prince.
The 26-year-old woman, who had made herself known by posting humorous videos on social networks, today no longer has the heart to laugh.
“We would like to stay in the country to provide care, especially to people in the provinces who need it so badly, but the country does not give us this chance”, she laments, adding that Haiti “would unfortunately end up losing all its young people ”.
Faced with massive unemployment, thousands of young Haitians had already emigrated to Latin America from 2014.
Tens of thousands of them hoped to settle in the United States, mistakenly believing they could benefit from a more lenient migration policy from the Biden administration and therefore crossed the continent in the summer of 2021.
Gathered in early September under a bridge on the border between Mexico and Texas, more than 7,500 were finally expelled to Haiti by the American migration services.
This wave of massive dismissal had aroused the concern of humanitarian organizations when the country was already plunged into great uncertainty following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, by an armed commando, on July 7.
“Failed state”
Ariel Henry, appointed two days before the murder, now leads the country on an interim basis, but opposes total radio silence to the rise of gangs in Port-au-Prince, which paralyzes all activity by preventing the secure supply of fuel.
“The government, which exists only by name, does not control anything at all, not even the perimeter of its premises”, reacts to AFP the Haitian economist Etzer Emile for whom “the fuel crisis is the latest example of a failed state ”.
“As if runaway inflation, the continued rise of the dollar (on the gourd, local currency), food insecurity, brain drain, kidnapping were not enough, we needed a serious shortage of fuel and a phantom government in charge of comedians and carefree people, ”he asserts.
Gangs have committed more than 782 kidnappings for ransom since the start of the year, according to the Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research, based in Port-au-Prince.
One of the most powerful armed gangs in the country demands $ 17 million in ransom to free a group of missionaries and their families – 16 American citizens and one Canadian citizen – kidnapped on October 16 east of Port-au- Prince.
“The masters of our destiny and the decision-makers of our lives are no longer in the National Palace as was the case under the Duvalier dictatorship: it is now the armed gangs”, summarizes Etzer Émile, who is worried about what he calls “Haitian-style somalisation”, in reference to the African country plagued by armed militias.