Haiti | The increasingly precarious humanitarian situation in Port-au-Prince

(Port-au-Prince) Hospitals attacked, arrival of food threatened, infrastructure blocked: the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince faced an increasingly precarious humanitarian situation on Saturday, the day after a new evening of clashes between police and armed gangs.

“The inhabitants of the capital live locked up, they have nowhere to go,” Philippe Branchat, the head for Haiti of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), warned Saturday, describing “a city under siege.” .

“People who flee are unable to contact family members and friends who are in the rest of the country to find refuge. The capital is surrounded by armed groups and dangers.”

The criminal gangs, who control most of the capital as well as the roads leading to the rest of the territory, have been attacking police stations, prisons and courts for several days, in the absence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose release they are demanding. resignation just like part of the population.

According to the latest news, he is stranded in the American territory of Puerto Rico after a trip abroad.

Faced with this violence, dozens of residents took over the premises of a public administration in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, hoping to find refuge there, according to an AFP correspondent.

The evening before, armed men had attacked the national presidential palace and the Port-au-Prince police station, the general coordinator of the National Union of Haitian Police Officers (Synapoha) confirmed to AFP. Several attackers were killed, according to the same source.

Insecurity

“Insecurity is growing on a national scale: there is violence in Artibonite (region northwest of the capital, editor’s note), blockages in Cap-Haitien (north), and fuel shortages to the south,” notes Philippe Branchat.

According to the IOM, 362,000 people – more than half of whom are children – are currently displaced in Haiti, a figure which has jumped 15% since the start of the year.

The Haitian government has declared a state of emergency in the West department which includes Port-au-Prince, as well as a nighttime curfew, difficult to enforce by already overwhelmed law enforcement agencies.

Fabiola Sanon, a resident of Port-au-Prince, told AFP how her husband, James, 32, was killed during the recent violence.

“James has never been in conflict with anyone. He is a simple cigarette seller,” she confided after finding him “lying in the street.”

Faced with this outbreak of violence, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) invited representatives of the United States, France, Canada and the UN to a meeting on Monday in Jamaica.

Administrations and schools are closed while neither the airport nor the port is any longer operational.

Access to care is severely compromised, with “hospitals which have been attacked by gangs and which have had to evacuate medical staff and patients, including newborns”, according to the IOM.

The director general of the National Port Authority (APN), Jocelin Villier, reported looting at the port.

Hunger

The NGO Mercy Corps has warned of the risks for the supply of the population of the poorest country in the Americas.

“With the closure of the international airport, the little aid currently provided to Haiti may no longer arrive,” the NGO warned Thursday. And “if we can no longer access these containers, Haiti will soon be hungry.”

“If the paralysis of the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince continues over the coming weeks, nearly 3,000 pregnant women risk not being able to access essential health care,” several representatives of the UN in Haiti.

According to them, “nearly 450 of them could suffer from potentially fatal obstetric complications without qualified medical assistance.”

“Too many women and young women in Haiti are victims of indiscriminate violence committed by armed gangs,” commented the UN humanitarian coordinator for the country, Ulrika Richardson, adding that the United Nations “is committed to continuing to provide them with assistance.