Bullets after bullets, Port-au-Prince is bogged down

(Port-au-Prince, Haiti) Cité-Soleil, Bel-Air or Village de Dieu: more and more neighborhoods in the region of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince have fallen under the exclusive control of armed groups, since last June . The entire economy of the country is blocked. In Martissant, armed groups even occupied this week the important district police station, emptied of its police officers, which coincided with the intensification of a territorial conflict which blocked the only road to the entire south of the country.

“They took my phone and hurt me pushing me,” says Sandra Jean, 37, when she remembers one evening in November when she was coming home from her job in a small hotel. She resigned last Monday because her bosses refused to let her leave the premises before 7 p.m. She no longer feels safe in the evening in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

“I resign myself to taking over my small business in soap and plastic bowls,” she explains. “Rather stay alive. ”

Shots are heard as Sandra Jean hangs clean clothes on a rope stretched over the roof of her apartment. The bursts from the semi-automatic weapon sound at least a half-dozen times during the short conversation with Press.

“Since the 1^er December is bullet after bullet, ”she said. M^me Jean lives with four children and her husband in a neighboring district of Martissant, near the city center.

While armed conflicts have increased in some neighborhoods in recent months, kidnappings and ransom have also increased in the rest of the city. From January to October, at least 803 people were reportedly abducted, including around 50 foreigners, according to a human rights group. It is one of the main sources of funding for many armed groups.

Last week, 3 of the 15 North American hostages (missionaries) kidnapped more than a month ago north of the city were released. The Ohio-based missionary organization and Global Affairs Canada did not say whether the only Canadian in the group had been released.

Blocked roads

A few streets away, Haiti’s most important bus station, usually bustling with activity, is nearly empty. Unoccupied buses and minibuses are lined up there.

“We decided to stop all trips to the south since Monday,” explains Paul Beauséjour, local manager of the Association of owners and drivers of Haiti.

Monday morning, a minibus was riddled with bullets in Martissant. Injured in the back, the driver nevertheless managed to leave the area with his vehicle to find help. One passenger died instantly, and others were injured.

At least nine drivers of the Association have already been kidnapped for ransom this year while passing through this district, which crosses the only asphalt road that goes to the south of the country. It is also the only land access to the areas affected by the earthquake of August 14.

Resurgence of violence in Martissant

Martissant is experiencing an upsurge in rivalries for the control of certain territories. Most of the inhabitants of this large neighborhood, which numbers tens of thousands of people, have left their homes for a few months.

A former middle-class suburb, Martissant is located on the mountainside, and goes down to the seaside, where the national road is located. The only two alternative roads, dirt, passable by motorbike or four-wheel drive, go up the mountain, one to the top.

“They threatened me with a weapon three weeks ago,” recalls Jean-Baptiste, as he prepares to begin the ascent of one of these roads on a motocross. Since then, I no longer take the national road. ”

The 48-year-old man, an electrical and plumbing technician, lives in the southern suburbs of Port-au-Prince. When the traffic is flowing, he’ll be home in 15 minutes normally. He must now bypass the Martissant district, which takes more than 45 minutes per day in good weather. The road is dusty and passes very close to conflict zones.

“If I am stressed? asks John the Baptist, repeating the question asked by Press. I have six children to feed, that’s the only reason I’m here. I have to work, I have no choice. ”

Three years of an economy in the red

“The Haitian economy is suffocating,” explains economist Etzer Emile. “On the one hand by the political crisis with the difficulties to make elections and the constitutional crises, among others. But even more so with the insecurity situation which blocks access to national and secondary roads. Economic activity is paralyzed. ”

The last time Haiti experienced three consecutive years of negative growth was following the 1991 coup, recalls the professor at Quisqueya University, located in the Haitian capital.

In Haiti, annual inflation was nearly 20% last October, according to official figures released this week. UNICEF and the World Food Program are worried about undernourishment: 4 million people in Haiti were said to have suffered from it last year, or more than a third of the population.

Increase in fuel prices

In addition to the clashes in Martissant, an armed group voluntarily blocked this fall, for a month and a half, access to the largest gas terminal in the country, in Cité-Soleil. This has created a long shortage of gasoline, which is only now beginning to dissipate.

The bulk of fuel subsidies at the pump were lifted by the interim Haitian government on Friday, a measure hailed by the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the price of gasoline has just increased by 25% and that of diesel and kerosene by more than 200%.

“At 53, this is the first time that I have suffered like this,” says Mr. Beauséjour, of the Association of owners and drivers of Haiti. It also deplores the departure abroad of several of its members in recent months.

Discouragement

The majority of the population no longer has the impression that it will be able to improve, according to the academic Etzer Emile, who also holds a weekly television show of economic popularization.

“Worse than that, political actors, whether before or now, have no sensitivity to the crisis,” he adds. Or maybe they don’t have the capacity to answer them? Or maybe they’re not interested in doing it? ”

Under the amused gaze of his 8-year-old son, Mr.^me Jean hangs the last t-shirt on the clothesline. “This year, there is no one in Port-au-Prince who will really celebrate Christmas,” she concludes.