Gang violence has hindered aid for earthquake victims in Haiti
So a truce was called — for now
LES CAYES, Haiti — The notorious leader of an armed gang federation confirmed Sunday that a truce has been negotiated between warring gangs to allow humanitarian aid to come from Haiti’s capital to quake-ravaged regions in the country’s southwest.
In a video, Jimmy Cherizier, a former Haiti National police officer who is wanted in several massacres and goes by the name “Barbecue,” also invited fellow “compatriots to show solidarity” with the victims of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck southwest Haiti on Aug. 14 by sharing what little they have with them.
“Everyone knows that the victims will need water, food, tents, tarpaulins,” Cherizier said in Creole. “We invite all those who can to help us strengthen this momentum of solidarity by providing all they can.”
He said fellow gang leaders from the 3rd District, which is the gang-controlled area of Martissant and neighboring communities located southwest of Port-auPrince, “have temporarily made peace to allow the passage of helpers.”
Gang violence in Martissant has presented a major logistical challenge for those wanting to come provide assistance, and has helped delay the delivery of aid to the three regions — the Nippes, the South and Grand’Anse — that have been devastated by the deadly tremor.
In updated figures released Sunday, Haitian authorities said they have now registered 2,207 deaths and 344 missing, a week after the natural disaster. The quake also injured at least 12,268 and destroyed or damage over 129,900 houses. Authorities have also said that at least 40% of the population in all three regions — more than 684,000 people — are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
The subject of a police warrant and U.S. sanctions for his alleged role in a deadly 2018 massacre that occurred in the poor neighborhood of La Saline in Haiti’s capital, Cherizier tries to present himself as the people’s savior.
But his words and actions have also come to denote the armed violence increasingly plaguing Haiti.
Last week, Haiti National Police said they had beefed up security along Martissant to provide access to the southwest, but conceded that traveling through the area, especially without police escort, remained risky for aid convoys or
anyone seeking to come provide aid.
Some of that assistance came Sunday with the arrival of the USS Arlington off the coast of Haiti to provide earthquake relief.
The ship departed Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, three days after the Aug. 14 earthquake. It has about 600 sailors and Marines, including surgical teams with enhanced medical capabilities as well as marines, more helicopters and a landing craft to help in the effort.
The ship joins other U.S. Southern Command components and U.S. Coast Guard ships already in Haiti, in addition to the presence of the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, who are also providing assistance.
“Our initial focus is to concentrate
on saving lives while alleviating suffering for the people of Haiti,” said Capt. Eric Kellum, commanding officer of Arlington. “Assisting those in need due to a natural disaster is something this team is trained and ready to do.”
The presence of foreign nations is welcome in Haiti, where patience had been wearing thin among the quake-ravaged population, which even before the disaster were dealing with challenges.
For months prior to the disaster, the Great South, as the region is referred to here, has been practically cut off from Port-au-Prince, and violent gangs until now had ignored calls to cease the violence or to allow for a humanitarian corridor so that ambulances responding to COVID-19 cases and other health emergencies can respond.
The new surge in violence, which erupted in early June, has forced the displacement of more than 16,000 Haitians, the United Nations has said, adding to Haiti’s humanitarian challenges.
In late June, the French medical charity Doctors Without Borders
announced it was temporarily closing a health facility in the area after doctors and patients were the target of an armed gang attack. Weeks later, it announced the permanent closure, saying conditions had not improved.
Dr. Ronald Laroche, the founder of DASH, which runs a network of eight private hospitals and clinics, said that gangs had also forced the closure of one of his facilities in Martissant after they took over and then started shooting “at each other” from both his DASH medical center and the MSF emergency clinic.
After two months, DASH’s 18-bed facility was “still in the hands of gangsters,” Laroche added.
Haiti’s criminal violence came into full view last week after Laroche and an official at another hospital in the capital, Bernard Mevs, confirmed that surgeons working at their respective facilities had been kidnapped while en route to work. Both doctors were released as of Saturday but not before a pregnant woman and
her unborn child died because the DASH doctor was abducted while en route to do an emergency Cesarean section.
It’s unclear if gangs were behind the kidnappings, but the abductions highlighted the ongoing insecurity and erosion of rule of law in Haiti, even before the latest calamity.
In the video, Cherizer sent greetings to the citizens of the Departments of the South, Nippes and Grand’Anse.
“We want to tell them that the G9 Revolutionary Forces and Allies, all for one and one for all, sympathize with their pain and sorrow,” he said. “We express our sympathies to all those who,
husband or wives, moms and dad, children and parents, who have lost a loved one. We salute every victim. We also greet each fellow, injured crippled or disabled ... citizen found in the hospital because of the earthquake.”
He later added that the G9 plans to participate in the relief in the coming days, “by bringing them
help.”