UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for international action to stop escalating violence in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. About a state in a state of emergency.
“Moun pam,” says Annalisa Lombardo when asked why she has been living in Haiti for 15 years and has never left the country despite all the disasters. Because of “moun pam”, which means “my people” in Creole. The Italian says she fell in love with the Haitians. She calls the country in the Caribbean her home. The country director of Welthungerhilfe in Haiti wants to stay, even if she decided on Tuesday to keep the office in Port-au-Prince closed for security reasons.
“It’s just too dangerous for my colleagues and I to go out on the streets at the moment. It used to be risky because of kidnappings, muggings, stray bullets or when there were clashes between gang members and the police,” Lombardo describes the situation, “but today if someone thinks you look suspicious in any way, you risk, without further ado Reasons to be lynched.”
Security situation as in an armed conflict
Like on Monday, when more than a dozen suspected gang members were lynched by a mob – in the open street, in broad daylight. According to Haitian media, the outraged people forced their victims off a bus, stoned them and finally burned them alive. It is the temporary climax of a spiral of violence, which is why António Guterres is calling for the deployment of an international intervention force. The UN Secretary-General complained that insecurity in the capital Port-au-Prince had “reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflicts”.
Annalisa Lombardo also sees no other way out. A few weeks ago, Welthungerhilfe, together with other aid organizations such as Care, Plan International and World Vision, sent a desperate call for more support to the international community. “We are calling for international humanitarian intervention above all, but restoring the rule of law is a necessity. The security of the neighborhoods, some strategic points like the gas stations and the main roads must be guaranteed,” Lombardo told DW.
Poorhouse of America
Most of the 11.5 million Haitians are dependent on international aid. The country director of Welthungerhilfe can recite many figures that illustrate the full extent of the misery in the desperately poor country. According to the World Bank, almost 90 percent of Haitians live below the poverty line, and one in three even live in extreme poverty. Cholera has flared up again, so far with 670 dead and 35,000 suspected cases, most of them children. And only about every second household has access to a basic drinking water supply and improved latrines, i.e. sanitary facilities that protect people from contact with their waste.
As if the humanitarian situation weren’t worrying enough, the violence has also reached extreme proportions. The capital Porte-au-Prince in particular is in the stranglehold of marauding gangs. The UN special representative for Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, flew to New York to present her report on the current situation in the country at headquarters. What is in there resembles a single nightmare.
“The number of reported homicides increased by 21 percent: 815 cases between January 1 and March 31 compared to 673 in the last quarter of 2022. Also, 637 kidnappings were recorded in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 63 percent compared to 391 in the last three months of 2022. 22 cops were killed by gangs in 2023.”
Rapes, kidnappings, refugees
The report speaks of snipers shooting from rooftops at people in their homes or on the street. About a 16-year-old girl who was raped by several gang members in broad daylight. About children who are kidnapped near their schools and then have to transport ammunition as messengers in the fights, load weapons or even carry out attacks themselves.
It’s about clinics like the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which is responsible for the care of an estimated 700,000 people, but had to stop its services two months ago due to the high level of uncertainty. Around 130,000 internally displaced people who are scattered throughout the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince. And hundreds of pregnant and breastfeeding women who, after fleeing east to the Dominican Republic, were deported back to Haiti.
Banded the new rulers
Haiti, which 13 years ago had to survive the world’s most devastating earthquake of the 21st century – according to official figures 316,000 people lost their lives – is again in an almost hopeless emergency. The trigger for this was an assassination attempt in July 2021, in which the then President Jovenel Moïse was murdered in his private villa. The interim government of Prime Minister and Head of State Ariel Henry lacks popular support, protests are a daily occurrence, and according to Haitian authorities, seven large gangs have exploited the power vacuum. The United Nations estimates that these gangs control 60 percent of Port-au-Prince. If you believe the population, it has long been the whole city. That’s why Henry called for an armed international unit six months ago.
“The new head of state was met with fierce hostility throughout his tenure. It was a fairly diverse, disjointed and anarchic movement, and that anarchy paved the way for a practice unfortunately common in Haiti to take hold – namely, arming gangs to the point where the situation got completely out of hand,” says Annalisa Lombardo.
Haiti in the concept of “Somalization”
As a result, the country director of Welthungerhilfe has hardly been able to sleep a wink over the last few nights. This is now almost part of everyday life in Port-au-Prince. As well as videos like the one she was sent the other day. In an elementary school near the capital, the walls were riddled with bullets, the children lay on the floor in complete panic.
The future prospects of “your people” in Haiti? Dark, says Annalisa Lombardo. “We are moving towards my worst case scenario at breakneck speed. Someone here coined the term ‘Somamalization’ to describe the current situation: a fragmentation of territory coupled with a complete failure of government. With all the consequences in terms of poverty and human rights violations.”
Autor: Oliver Pieper
