Haiti’s ‘Barbecue’ gang leader warns of genocide if PM returns

THE HAITIAN warlord nicknamed “Barbecue” has warned of genocide and civil war in Haiti unless the prime minister steps down.

Jimmy Chérizier’s warning came amid ongoing firefights across the capital, Port-au-prince, where armed criminal gangs under his command are seeking to oust premier Ariel Henry.

“If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide,” said Chérizier, a former police officer, whose nickname is said to come from his habit of burning down rivals’ homes - while they are inside.

“Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us. It’s out of the question for a small group of rich people living in big hotels to decide the fate of people living in working-class neighbourhoods.”

Mr Henry, who is also acting as president following the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moise, has been unable to return to Haiti from a trip to Kenya last week, after the gangs targeted the country’s biggest airport.

Security forces repelled them from Toussaint Louverture International Airport on Monday, but only after they had cut a hole in the perimeter fence. The airport continues to be the scene of fierce fighting and international flights to Haiti have been cancelled.

Mr Henry had been negotiating the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to his stricken Caribbean homeland as part of a United Nations-backed

peacekeeping force. On Wednesday, he was reported to have landed in Puerto Rico.

He had earlier been refused entry to the Dominican Republic, which occupies the other half of the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti is located.

The country, a major tourism destination, is desperately trying to avoid being sucked into the chaos and has closed down its 150-mile border.

In Mr Henry’s absence, Haitian officials declared a three-day state of emergency on Monday and imposed a nightly curfew in an effort to calm the growing unrest.

The clashes saw about 3,600 prisoners, many of them gang members, break out of the country’s largest prison on Sunday. Meanwhile, a prison riot was reported on Tuesday in the southern region of Jacmel.

Renata Segura, a Haiti expert at the

International Crisis Group, described the prime minister as “missing in action” since the armed clashes began last Thursday. “Is this the moment that the Haitian state completely collapses?” she asked.

The bloodshed has now displaced about 15,000 people, many of whom are thought to be fleeing Port-au-prince for the rural area of Artibonite, just north of the capital.

Half of Haiti’s 11 million citizens are now reliant on food aid while one in three are at risk of starvation, Ms Segura warned: “The human cost is terrible. It’s

a bleak situation.”

Meanwhile, the peacekeeping mission faced a legal challenge in Kenya, where an opposition party has appealed against the accord to send Kenyan police on the basis that Mr Henry, who postponed elections scheduled for February due to the surging violence, did not legitimately represent Haitians.

But Ms Segura warned that such outside help was the only solution. “The Haitian National Police is not equipped or strong enough, partly because of the incredible amounts of corruption,” she said.

“The idea that Haitians could defeat the gangs on their own seems really unlikely.

“We think it will bring at least a little bit of respite for Haitians that have been living under the gang control, and strengthen institutions that are close to non-existent.”

‘It’s out of the question for rich people to decide the fate of people in workingclass neighbourhoods’