Homicides and kidnappings show Haiti’s crisis continues even as fuel flow resumes
A rise in gang violence and kidnappings in Haiti continues to worry the United Nations, whose top humanitarian official in Port-au-Prince has appealed to the international community to provide support for Haitians.
Ulrika Richardson, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, said the global organization is beginning to see a timid resumption of fuel distribution in Port-au-Prince after a powerful gang alliance released its hold on the country’s key oil terminal this month. But the daily reality of life in Haiti, she said, remains worrying.
Cholera is rapidly spreading and there is a severe food crisis. And gang violence and kidnappings continue to rise, said Richardson, speaking to journalists Wednesday, a day after the U.N. and the government of Haiti launched a $145.6 million humanitarian appeal to respond to the cholera and hunger crisis.
The violence, she said, “continues to show very concerning upward trends. ... Armed gangs continue to hold more or less 60% of the capital in its grip.”
In October, the U.N. said there had been 195 homicides and 102 kidnappings.
Killings and kidnappings by gangs continue despite efforts by the Haiti National
Police to clamp down. In recent weeks, police have killed a number of gang members and made numerous arrests.
One high-profile arrest involved a divisional police inspector, Wakin Pierre, 49, who is assigned to the palace’s security detail. Pierre was arrested Friday while in a Toyota Land Cruiser coming from Belladère, which borders the Dominican Republic. He was stopped by police just east of the capital.
He was found with 4,000, 5.56 caliber cartridges; 41 9mm caliber cartridges, three Glock 9mm pistol magazines; a 9mm caliber pistol and $186,900 in U.S. dollars. He’s accused of trafficking in ammunition and criminal association. In a video that police put out touting the arrest, Pierre says he was delivering the arms for the owner of a hotel to someone in Delmas 31. He acknowledged on video that he was aware of what he was transporting.
Pierre’s arrest came mere days after the Dominican newspaper Listín Diario reported that Dominican border guards had arrested Midrene Manessa Millien, the wife of the vice delegate of Belladère, in Elias Pinas, with 22,160 cartridges — 12,000 of them 7.62 millimeter caliber and 10,160 of them 5.56 millimeter caliber — in a Lexus jeep headed for Haiti. Millien was traveling in a white Lexus jeep along with another woman, Fara Josef, and a child.
Despite such efforts to crack down on the illegal trafficking of weapons, Haitian police continue to face challenges in providing security as Haitians continually find themselves trying to stay safe from abductions. Human-rights groups have confirmed several gang-orchestrated killings since Nov. 1.
There was also a report of the killing of 17 street merchants on Nov. 6 in the hills above Port-au-Prince in the area controlled by the gang Ti Makak. The disturbing images of the victims’ bloodied corpses, which included four women, were shared on social media. The next day, another 10 people were reportedly killed in a community between Carrefour and Petionville.
The violence isn’t isolated to Port-au-Prince. There have been deadly clashes in Petite Rivière in the Lower Artibonite region, north of the capital, as gangs set fire to homes and kill those in their path.
“The reality of the country has not changed,” said Gédéon Jean, a lawyer who runs the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, which is based in Port-au-Prince and monitors kidnappings.
Jean said while the resumption of fuel deliveries in many places is welcome, the gang blockade of the Varreux fuel terminal and the country’s seaports was part of a larger, deepening crisis. The blockade left many Haitians without food, fuel or drinking water.
“The gangs are still here,” he said. “While we saw Varreux get unblocked, there was a massacre in Carerfour Feuilles and the gangs are still showing force. There is still a necessity for an outside force to come to support the police.”
Haiti’s interim government recently asked for the rapid deployment of an armed force to help police create a humanitarian corridor to get aid to those who need it.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said last week that conversations are ongoing with partners from around the world about the potential for a mission endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
This week, the U.S. led discussions in Jamaica with Caribbean Community representatives and Canada about the situation in Haiti and a potential mission to the country. The U.S. would like Canada to take the lead, but the country has yet to say if it will.
In the meantime, the U.S. and Canada are relying on visa cancellations and sanctions. Among those who recently had their visas canceled were the ministers of justice and interior in the interim government. The current president and former president of the Senate were sanctioned.
The State Department and the FBI are hoping that the recent indictment of several gang leaders and a reward of $1 million per person for information leading to the arrest of the indicted gang chiefs will help stem the violence and send a message.
“It is a joint effort,” said a federal official. “We are looking to make sure that these individuals are brought to justice.”
The official said this is not the first time the U.S. has offered a reward to capture someone in a foreign territory responsible for the kidnapping of an American citizen or resident.
The official acknowledged that kidnappings in Haiti have kept federal agencies busy, and today they are looking to “have an impact on the safety and security of American citizens traveling back and forth to Haiti.
“We want to make sure that the Haitian population understands that we are indeed involved, although not a lot of the work that we do make the papers or make the social-media networks. We are always working in the background.”