The UN has promised to set up an “air bridge” to streamline humanitarian aid to Haiti, a poor Caribbean country plagued by violence, where a powerful gang leader has pledged to continue the fighting while a transition plan is struggling to come to fruition.
Gangs that control most of the capital Port-au-Prince launched an armed campaign nearly two weeks ago to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry, plunging the country into violent conflict with risks of famine and of civil war.
While the international airport remains closed, the UN mission in Haiti announced Wednesday evening an “air bridge” between the Dominican Republic and Haiti for the fluidity of aid and the movement of its personnel, indicated the assignment.
Ariel Henry agreed to step down after an emergency meeting in Jamaica on Monday with the participation of Haitian representatives, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the UN and several countries such as the United States and France.
But a transition plan allowing Haitians to form a presidential council announced at this meeting and aimed at restoring a semblance of stability seems threatened.
Firepower
The leader of one of these armed bands threw a spanner in the works by assuring that he would “continue the fight for the liberation of Haiti”.
Gang leader Jimmy Chérizier aka “Barbecue” said Ariel Henry’s resignation “doesn’t matter to him” in an interview with Colombian radio W,
“I saw CARICOM countries deciding for the Haitian people […]. We will continue the fight for the liberation of Haiti,” he said.
Gangs are a priori excluded from the transition in preparation. But because of their firepower, they risk de facto influence.
Criminal gangs control entire swathes of the country, including 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince. Their violence – murders, rapes, kidnappings for ransom, looting – has spread to rural areas previously considered safe, the UN indicated in November.
In recent years, gangs “have become very powerful. They penetrated deep into communities. They recruited a lot of young people, they exploited the desperation of young people” and “don’t want to disappear”, says Ivan Briscoe, of the NGO International Crisis Group.
Haiti has not had national elections since 2016 and there is currently no president or parliament. Appointed a few days before the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Prime Minister Ariel Henry was heavily contested.
Several residents welcomed his resignation but wonder how the gangs will behave.
For Emmanuel, who declined to give his last name, Mr. Henry “was the biggest obstacle we encountered.” “He didn’t really have a plan for what he was going to do with the country. We need a rapid mechanism to replace it,” he told AFP.
“It is now up to the people to decide who should be prime minister and who should be president. These people must be Haitian patriots and they must have a sense of national sovereignty,” insisted another Haitian, Jean Dieuchel.
“Poorly prepared”
Mr. Henry had been stranded in Puerto Rico after a visit to Kenya, where he hoped to hammer out details of a plan for Nairobi to lead a U.N.-approved police force to restore order in Haiti .
Kenya was to deploy a thousand police officers in the country as part of an international mission supported by the UN, but announced that it would suspend this dispatch in view of the situation. Its president William Ruto, however, assured that this deployment would take place once a presidential council was installed.
The President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, who heads CARICOM, for his part stressed that the crisis in Haiti was probably beyond the capacity that the Caribbean military could manage.
“The situation in Haiti shows how unprepared we were as a region,” he said at an event hosted by the University of Guyana in Georgetown.
Difficult talks
In Haiti, the presidential council must be formed of seven voting members representing the main political forces in Haiti and the private sector. He must choose an interim prime minister and appoint an “inclusive” government.
According to the Americans, this council was to be formed “within 24 to 48 hours”, but the negotiations are difficult.
Jean Charles Moïse, of the left-wing Pitit Desalin party, said on Wednesday that he rejected CARICOM’s proposal on the formation of a presidential council.
And most of the parties contacted by AFP indicated that they were still in talks.
If the EDE / RED / Historical Compromise grouping, a group close to assassinated President Jovenel Moïse, has already submitted its representative to CARICOM, members of the December 21 collective — Ariel Henry’s group — disagree on the person to choose .
“None of this is easy. None of this is going to happen from one day to the next,” said the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken on Wednesday.
The United States announced that it had sent a team of its Marines to protect its embassy.
“Obviously, the political situation remains a little unclear,” admitted the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, urging an agreement on this council “as quickly as possible”.