(Port-au-Prince) Armed gangs are still extending their hold on the capital Port-au-Prince, the UN special coordinator in Haiti warned on Thursday, at a time when negotiations to form transitional authorities to the head of the country seems to be on the verge of success.
“Over the past few days, gangs have advanced into new areas of the capital,” Ulrika Richardson, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the country, said on Thursday.
“We are seeing people arriving from several places around Port-au-Prince with gunshot wounds,” she said during a video press briefing from Haiti, adding that “a very large number of people have had to flee their neighborhood” as the gangs advance.
These armed bands already controlled 80% of the capital in 2023 according to the UN and are accused of numerous abuses: murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings for ransom.
“The situation in Haiti and Port-au-Prince in particular has gone from very worrying to extremely alarming,” alerted Mme Richardson, describing a daily life of “roadblocks, the sound of gunfire, and a lot of tension in the streets.”
PHOTO CLARENS SIFFROY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People walk past a barricade on a road in Port-au-Prince.
The capital has been particularly marked in recent days by clashes in Pétion-Ville, an affluent suburb of Port-au-Prince.
Armed men tried on Tuesday evening and Wednesday to take control of several neighborhoods of this town, where fourteen dead bodies were found on Monday.
After a relatively calm morning Thursday in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, shots were heard in the capital’s city center in the afternoon, according to residents.
The UN Security Council also declared itself Thursday “gravely concerned by the illicit flow of arms and ammunition towards Haiti”, and reaffirmed the obligation of member states to respect the embargo in force on weapons.
Waiting
Haiti, which was already experiencing a deep political and security crisis, has been gripped by renewed violence since the beginning of the month, when several gangs joined forces to attack strategic locations in Port-au-Prince as part of a fight against Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Highly contested, the latter was unable to return to his country after a trip to Kenya at the beginning of the month. He agreed to resign on March 11.
The same day, several countries and organizations such as the Caribbean Community met urgently in Jamaica.
A future presidential transitional council, which must notably be composed of representatives of Haitian political parties, was announced at the end of the meeting.
This council must try to put the country, entire sections of which are in the hands of armed gangs, back on the path to stability.
After several days of talks, each group agreed Thursday morning on a choice of representative, and the left-wing party Pitit Desalin, which had initially given up on being represented, reversed its decision, according to a correspondent for the ‘AFP.
The UN Secretary General welcomed Thursday the fact that “Haitian stakeholders have all chosen their representative for the presidential transition council” and called for “maintaining the momentum and the work of cohesion,” according to his spokesperson. speaking deputy Farhan Haq.
Haiti currently remains without a president or parliament: the last head of state, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021. And the country has not had any elections since 2016. Ariel Henry, appointed by Jovenel Moïse, should have left his duties at the beginning of February.
Cholera
In the meantime, the capital faces a serious humanitarian crisis.
“Less than half of the health establishments in Port-au-Prince are operating normally,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday, citing shortages of medicines and blood products.
And “the cholera epidemic […] could resume if the crisis continues,” he warned.
The Port-au-Prince airport remains closed as does part of the port, Ulrika Richardson also specified, citing difficulties in accessing fuel.
“The rest of the country does not experience the same violence as the capital, but suffers consequences: the availability of fuel is less there, for example,” she stressed.
Several tanker trucks were, however, able to be loaded into the capital’s main oil terminal on Thursday after more than three days of inactivity, according to an AFP correspondent.