(Georgetown) Caribbean leaders called for an emergency meeting in Jamaica on Monday with the United States, Canada and France to find a way out of Haiti’s spiraling gang violence.
Members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) regional trade bloc have been trying for months to get Haitian political actors to agree to form a transitional unity government.
So far their efforts have been unsuccessful and the 15-nation bloc said in a statement late Friday that “the situation on the ground remains dire.” Gunfire rocked the Haitian capital again on Friday, as anti-government gangs clashed with police in the streets.
Relentless gang attacks have paralyzed the country for more than a week and left it with dwindling supplies of basic goods. Haitian authorities extended a state of emergency and nighttime curfew on Thursday as gangs continued to attack key state institutions.
The CARICOM statement said that while regional leaders remain deeply engaged in trying to bring together opposition parties and civil society groups to form a unity government, “stakeholders are not yet where they must be.”
“We are fully aware of the urgent need to reach consensus,” the document reads. We have made it clear to the parties concerned that time is not on their side to agree on the way forward. According to our reports, the situation on the ground remains dire and gives us serious concern. »
“It is essential that this commitment be at the highest possible level to send a clear message of unity between CARICOM and the international community as we work together to provide essential support to the Haitian people during this time of crisis,” says the press release.
In February, Haiti’s embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to hold general elections by mid-2025, and the international community is fed up with finding a foreign armed force willing to combat gang violence in this country.
PHOTO ANDREW KASUKU, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry
CARICOM has also pushed Mr. Henry to announce a consensus, power-sharing government in the meantime, but Mr. Henry has not yet done so, even though Haitian opposition parties and civil society groups demand his resignation.
Mr Henry, a neurosurgeon, was appointed prime minister following the assassination in early July 2021 of President Jovenel Moïse.
It is unclear whether Mr. Henry will be in Jamaica. The prime minister had traveled to Kenya to lobby for the deployment, with UN support, of a police force from the East African country to combat gangs in Haiti. However, a Kenyan court ruled in January that such a deployment would be unconstitutional.
Mr Henry, who faces calls to resign or form a transition council, still cannot return home. He arrived in Puerto Rico on Tuesday after being unable to land in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti. The Dominican government said it lacked a required flight plan as it closed its country’s airspace with Haiti.