Gangs are gaining power in Haiti against a backdrop of political paralysis and are increasing bloody clashes in the Port-au-Prince region to expand their territory, killing hundreds of people in the process.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
This week, heavily armed men clashed in the heart of the capital, forcing panicked traders and residents to flee in an attempt to escape stray bullets.
The fighting followed an outbreak of violence earlier in the month in the Cité Soleil slum, west of Port-au-Prince, where more than 400 people were killed or injured according to a United Nations report.
PHOTO ODELYN JOSEPH, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Children forced to flee their residence in the slum of Cité Soleil sleep on the ground of a school transformed into a refuge.
The medical coordinator of Doctors Without Borders in the country, Jean-Gilbert Ndong, notes that the population of the Brooklyn sector found themselves “caught in a vice” during the clashes, which opposed two coalitions of gangs named G9 and G-Pèp.
We were able to evacuate about forty people whose condition required emergency care. It was necessary to go about it three times, each time negotiating with the belligerents.
Jean-Gilbert Ndong, medical coordinator of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti
Another wave of fighting in April and May between gangs linked to the G9 and G-Pèp also had a devastating effect on the population of the capital region, forcing the displacement of more than 15,000 people. Cases of “extreme violence” were then reported, including numerous beheadings.
“revolutionary” force
Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group who closely follows the situation in Haiti, notes that nearly a hundred gangs normally operate in the Port-au-Prince region.
Many came together in 2020 to form the G9 on the initiative of an ex-policeman, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, precipitating the creation of the G-Pèp a month later,
PHOTO RODRIGO ABD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, leader of the G9 gang
The G9, Mr. Da Rin noted, is currently on the offensive and has launched an assault on its adversaries in Cite Soleil as part of a campaign to establish its authority over the entire capital.
The primary goal of the operation, notes the analyst, is to find a way to diversify the sources of income of the coalition gangs, which are based in particular on kidnapping and the collection of ransoms.
Their action is not necessarily devoid of larger ambitions, since Chérizier recently declared in a video that the G9 was a “revolutionary” force opposed to the whole political class of the country.
The former policeman, notes Mr. Da Rin, seems to make an exception for President Jovenel Moïse, who was killed last year by mercenaries.
The gang leader has previously said he will avenge his death and has lashed out at the country’s current prime minister, Ariel Henry, claiming he played a role in the execution, which still goes viral. subject of an investigation.
Mr. Da Rin notes that Chérizier has been accused in the past of having orchestrated deadly attacks in disadvantaged neighborhoods considered as strongholds of resistance to the government of Jovenel Moïse.
PHOTO RALPH TEDY EROL, REUTERS
Soldiers stand guard outside a military base near the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince on July 27.
Historically, members of Haiti’s political and economic elite have often maintained ties to gangs to consolidate their power, but criminals have gained autonomy in recent years, according to the ICG analyst.
Gangs can stifle opposition movements in territory they control and influence polls in exchange for funding or legal protection.
” Open secret “
“It is an open secret that the economic and political elite in Haiti support gangs” and that they have repeatedly engaged in “wars by [procuration] says Lou Pingeot, a researcher from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa who has studied their development in the country.
These links with the political class complicate the task of the national police, which must also deal with the fact that it is largely infiltrated by gangs.
The deployment of an international police force to try to restore order in Haiti was recently mentioned by some members of the UN Security Council, but seems unlikely, notes Mr. Da Rin, who insists on the need to strengthen the intervention capacity of the police in place, in particular by providing them with more appropriate weapons.
PHOTO ODELYN JOSEPH, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Members of the Haitian armed forces secure an area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, in an attempt to stem the outbreak of violence on July 11.
A lull in violence is imperative, he said, so that the country can call elections and form a government whose legitimacy is not disputed.
Mme Pingeot notes that any international intervention force would be viewed with suspicion by the local population, who, she says, have bad memories of the United Nations peacekeeping operation carried out from 2004 to 2017.
To overcome the gangs, it is necessary to have the will “to go and see who is financing and arming them”, but also to tackle in the longer term the serious socio-economic problems affecting the population.
Improved police intervention can act as a short-term “bandaid”, but will not solve the fundamental issues fueling the violence, warns Mme Pingeot.