Haiti Report, November 8, 2024
A compilation of news about Haiti from the past week.
Haiti’s Prime Minister calls for more security support
Prime Minister Garry Conille sharply criticized the international community for providing assistance that fails to address security issues, for unmet promises regarding the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), and for its refusal to supply military-type equipment to Haiti to combat gangs and urban guerrilla warfare, during a citizens’ forum on Saturday, November 2, 2024.
“One of the urgent needs to enhance security is to bolster the army’s numbers. We are facing urban guerrilla warfare,” said Garry Conille, commenting that elsewhere, the army would already be mobilized. “Since I took office, I have hastened to inform the international community that the quality and quantity of aid the country receives is inadequate and will not resolve the problem,” he stated. “We need helicopters, better drones. There are essential pieces of equipment that you refuse to provide us because you claim they can only be given to the army. If we had been given sophisticated intelligence equipment, it would have yielded better results for the PNH. I’ve said that the overall approach to assistance will not allow us to emerge from this crisis,” continued Prime Minister Garry Conille, who referenced a broken promise concerning the MSS.
“You promised me 2,500 personnel by September. September has come, and I only have 400. Where is the rest? You told me you would help me rebuild the army, the police, and hire people. Where is that support?” said Prime Minister Garry Conille, detailing his diplomatic efforts.
“My priority has been to tell our allies that the promises made in the context of this emergency have not been fulfilled. I sent the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Brazil and Belgium. I went to the USA. I called friends in El Salvador and spoke with people in Mexico, mobilizing everyone I know in the international community to stress that this urgent support for Haiti is essential and to remind them that the children of Haiti deserve no less than the children of Ukraine,” explained Garry Conille, emphasizing that Haiti deserves the same attention, effort, and commitment as Ukraine. “Of course, they say they have been helping Haiti for a long time and that they never see any progress,” Garry Conille remarked, referring to the efforts made by the Haitian state to provide equipment, arms, and ammunition to Haitian security forces. “Today, I can tell you that the PNH is much better equipped… But it is not enough. We still do not have what we need to fight this battle. We need other drones—much more sophisticated ones. We are on the verge of acquiring them. We are discussing with the army about what is needed so that we can breathe a little easier,” said Garry Conille, believing that the security situation is better today compared to July of last year.
United States Delivers Additional Equipment for the Haitian National Police and Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti
The Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) delivered vital equipment October 28 – November 3 to support the Haitian National Police (HNP) and Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in Haiti. Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) arrived in Haiti to double the MSS fleet and enhance mobility, along with other assistance. INL has also contributed other law enforcement tools to aid the MSS forces working in coordination with the HNP to combat deadly Haitian gangs.
This assistance underscores our ongoing commitment to addressing the urgent security and humanitarian needs in Haiti. A well-equipped MSS is critical for bolstering the anti-gang efforts of the HNP. The United States remains committed to supporting the Haitian people in achieving stability that can bring about a Haitian-led political solution through free and fair elections. Office of the Spokesperson, November 4, 2024
El Salvador approves plan to send contingent of soldiers to Haiti
El Salvador’s Congress approved a proposal Wednesday to send a contingent of soldiers to Haiti under the auspices of the United Nations to handle medical evacuations in the troubled Caribbean nation. Patricia Aguilera, legal affairs director for El Salvador’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, told lawmakers it was part of the country’s commitment to the U.N.’s Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti.
She did not give an idea of the size of the El Salvador contingent and lawmakers did not seem to know. They would be limited to medical evacuations because that has been their experience in other U.N. missions, she said. “As a country, we are an example of security on an international level and that is why we provide support, but specifically for medical evacuations, that is our experience,” Aguilera said.
Cautious resumption of activities at Port-au-Prince port
On Thursday, November 7, the Transition Presidential Council held a meeting with stakeholders from the port sector. The meeting was chaired by Leslie Voltaire, who was accompanied by Presidential Advisors Laurent St-Cyr and Frinel Joseph. According to a post by the presidency on social media, government officials present included Ketleen Florestal, Minister of Finance; James Monazard, Minister of Commerce and Industry; the Director General of the National Port Authority (APN), Jocelin Villier; the coordinator of the CIAT, Christine Stéphenson; and representatives from the Haitian Ports Association (APHA). The discussions focused on the challenges and issues related to port infrastructure.
“We reviewed the security aspect of the ports, the functioning of the sector, competition, and the decentralization of operations to provincial cities. The stakeholders provided an overview of the sector. Another meeting is scheduled for continued discussions,” summarized one of the participants in the meeting. The newspaper also learned that activities at the Port of Port-au-Prince have cautiously resumed after a month of complete shutdown due to destabilizing actions, such as gunfire aimed at vessels and the kidnapping of two sailors. “These actions have decreased significantly. There is a slow but steady return to normal. Trust is being restored. Ships are starting to return. We are receiving, on average, one ship per day. There is no longer a shortage of goods,” summarized a contact at the APN.
Role of Studebaker Defense Group in Haiti not clear
In late September, Haitian prime minister Gary Conille quietly reached an agreement with Studebaker Defense Group, a multinational security contractor whose employees include many former Pentagon and CIA officials. The firm had been angling for work in Haiti for more than a year. In March 2023, retired US General Wesley Clark, who sits on Studebaker’s board, reached out to then prime minister Ariel Henry, even flying to Port-au-Prince to meet with government officials, as HRRW reported at the time. While a deal was not reached then, a spokesperson for Studebaker confirmed its current presence in Haiti. “In a dedicated effort to enhance security and public safety in Haiti, Studebaker Group has launched a strategic training and mentoring initiative in support of the Haitian National Police,” the company said in a statement to HRRW, adding that they operate “purely in an advisory capacity,” and report “directly to the Director Generale [sic] of the PNH.”
The role of Studebaker, however, remains anything but clear. According to three sources who claimed to have direct knowledge of the situation, the contract was signed directly with Prime Minister Conille, bypassing the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC), which has found itself increasingly at odds with Conille in recent weeks. “The Council was not informed and in fact confronted him about the matter,” a source close to the TPC told HRRW. “Even now, we haven’t seen the contract. So we don’t know the mission’s objectives, the number of personnel, if they are armed or not. Zero information.” https://cepr.net/haitian-government-hires-us-security-contractor-but-questions-remain/
During a meeting on Monday, November 4, with three members of the Presidential Transition Council (CPT), Prime Minister Garry Conille addressed the issue of alleged foreign mercenaries involved in operations within the country. According to one CPT member, there had been a lack of communication regarding the matter, but “Garry Conille provided us with the necessary explanations. The issue is close to being clarified.”
“The Prime Minister explained that it wasn’t about mercenaries. He walked us through his approach,” a presidential advisor told Le Nouvelliste, declining to elaborate further. However, the advisor noted that this topic had been previously discussed under former CPT President Edgard Leblanc Fils, adding that there was "information withheld by the former CPT president." Our source from the Presidential Council reported that during the meeting with Garry Conille, he shared documents about the Studebaker Group, which had been presented as a mercenary group in the country. https://lenouvelliste.com/en/article/251267/garry-conille-addresses-cpt-on-potential-mercenary-presence-in-haiti
New Haiti Humanitarian Situation Report: over 700k people displaced
The latest displacement tracking matrix reveals that almost 703,000 people are displaced, with children accounting for just over half of this population – underscoring the ongoing child crisis. While the Metropolitan Area of Port-au-Prince (ZMPP) now hosts 25 per cent of the displaced people, the majority still reside in informal and congested, displacement sites, exacerbating their vulnerability.
A new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis highlights a severe deterioration in food security across Haiti. Nearly half of the population (5.4 million people) is experiencing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 and above). Of these, 2 million are classified in IPC Phase 4, indicating emergency levels and high malnutrition rates. Additionally, over 6,000 displaced people face catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5). https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/unicef-haiti-humanitarian-situation-report-no-08-september-2024
Tensions between the Prime Minister and Presidential Council Persist
Propelled to the top of the state without elections or a coup d'état, the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) and Prime Minister Garry Conille are playing a game of political chess. The CPT, weakened, has a clear objective: a cabinet reshuffle. According to our sources, this reshuffle aims to seize control of two key ministerial positions: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.
Dominique Dupuy’s hardline stance against the Dominican Republic, which has been engaged in a massive and uncoordinated repatriation of illegal Haitian migrants, is causing irritation—both at the Villa d'Accueil in Haiti and at El Palacio Nacional in Santo Domingo. Her position, along with that of Carlos Hercule, is under scrutiny. This demand is not limited to the three advisors charged after the submission of the government's indictment in the alleged corruption scandal involving the National Bank of Crédit (BNC). The Prime Minister has been notified of a resolution signed by 5 out of 7 voting members of the CPT, calling for his dismissal. Laurent St. Cyr and Edgard Leblanc Fils did not sign this resolution, our source added.
"Whether they send this resolution to the Le Moniteur newspaper remains to be seen. But they have made it clear to the Prime Minister that this resolution has been signed. Diplomatic circles are also aware of the existence of this resolution," explained our source, who expressed concern over the potential consequences of this situation on the functioning of the state and the ability to meet the transition's goals on time.
Since Leslie Voltaire’s appointment as President of the Council, there has been no council of ministers, noted this source. Another source, closer to the CPT, refrains from calling it blackmail but believes this unsigned resolution is "a means of pressuring Prime Minister Conille into accepting the cabinet reshuffle." This source also confirmed that "almost all of the voting advisors want to see Dupuy and Hercule removed." The source acknowledged that the CPT is fragile and has a deficit due to the indictment of three of its members in the BNC corruption case.
Over 61,000 deported while others detained in the Dominican Republic
Haitian activists on Thursday demanded that other countries temporarily stop deportations to their country due to a surge in gang violence and deepening poverty. Tens of thousands of people have been deported to Haiti in the past month, mostly from the Dominican Republic, whose president recently pledged to deport some 10,000 migrants a week.
The Caribbean country, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has deported nearly 61,000 migrants to Haiti in the past month, according to the latest government figures. In October, the U.S. deported 258 Haitians, while Turks & Caicos, Jamaica and the Bahamas deported a combined total of 231, according to Sam Guillaume, a spokesperson for Haiti’s Support Group for Returnees and Refugees.
He noted that many of those deported to Haiti remain homeless. “A lot of them can’t make it back home because their neighborhood is controlled by gangs,” he said. As a result, some deportees are temporarily living along Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic in hopes of crossing again. The deportees now join the more than 700,000 people left homeless by gang violence in recent years. Among that group are more than 12,000 who fled neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince following attacks last month, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.
Those held for deportation in the Dominican Republic are being forced into crowded jails with no water, no food and no beds, and when they defend their rights, they are sometimes tear-gassed, Guillaume said. “People are being treated like criminals,” he said.
The Haina detention center is located on the edge of the Caribbean coast, adjacent to the industrial park and an oil refinery, Refidomsa. Haina, known as the largest detention center for irregular migrants in the Dominican Republic, has been the subject of intense scrutiny since mass deportations from the Dominican Republic were announced in early October. The resort – or Haina holiday centre – is located in the eponymous town, located in San Cristóbal, in the south of the Dominican Republic. For years, officials responsible for space have been criticized for cases of human rights violations documented by organizations in the neighboring country, including the Human Rights Observatory.
Haina receives migrants awaiting expulsion or document verification. Dominicans deported from abroad are also received there.But "Haina's reception capacity is exceeded and the conditions of detention there are inhumane," Vladimir Jojo Fleurimé, a Haitian lawyer who has been working in the neighboring country since 2012, deplores to AyiboPost. The official denounces the lack of food, promiscuity, unsanitary conditions, and the delays in accessing legal assistance for detainees. https://ayibopost.com/haina-lenfer-des-migrants-haitiens-en-rd/
The Minister of the Interior and Police of the Dominican Republic, Faride Virginia Raful Soriano, declares that she categorically denies any claim concerning an alleged reduction in repatriations at the request of Haiti, in a statement published on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 on her X account, consulted by the online agency AlterPresse.
"The statements of the Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs are false and seek to interfere in our internal affairs," she castigates.
During a citizens' forum, organized on Saturday, November 2, 2024, in the commune of Kenscoff (municipality east of Port-au-Prince), the Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship (Maec), Dominique Dupuy, welcomed a reduction in deportations of Haitian migrants to the Dominican Republic. This reduction would be the "fruit of our efforts and our solidarity with our allies," she wrote on her X account, while emphasizing how much Haiti aspires to a frank and respectful dialogue with the Dominican Republic "for a partnership where each nation will find its advantages."
"Immigration policy is a sovereign right of each state. No country or international organization has the power to interfere in the internal decisions of the Dominican Republic," says Faride Virginia Raful Soriano. She reaffirms the commitment of the Dominican government to the implementation of its repatriation plan. "We will continue with the goal of repatriating 10,000 undocumented migrants per week, in full exercise of our sovereignty, protected by national laws and the Dominican Constitution."
https://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article31103
Attacks by Viv Ansanm armed coalition in Solino and Fort-National
There is no sleeping inside Port-au-Prince’s Solino neighborhood. Since members of a powerful gang coalition began carrying out a new round of violent attacks, clouds of smoke billow across the working-class neighborhood, bullets riddle its walls and the deserted cobble-stone streets have become a scene of both terror and resistance. A strategic neighborhood that would give members of the Viv Ansanm gang alliance access to areas of the capital not currently under their control, Solino has become the latest test for Haitian police and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission. Despite reports of successes against gangs, the mission, which also includes three dozen Jamaican, Belizean and Bahamian security personnel, has struggled to stop the expansion of violence as armed gangs launch a new wave of coordinated attacks against several neighborhoods in the capital and towns on its outskirts.
“There’s no sleep,” a 40-year-old Solino resident who asked not to be named told the Miami Herald. “If you are a young man, a young woman you have no choice but to stay awake and keep watch. But right now, no one in the area is sleeping.” Videos of the crime scene, shot by the gangs, show heavily armed members going door to door pulling out residents and threatening to set homes ablaze.
On October 30, the United Nations Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince said that between July and September, more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 500 injured by gang violence as well as in the fight against gangs. The violence primarily took place in the Port-au-Prince area and the Artibonite region to the north. During the same period, the mission documented 170 kidnappings for ransom. The U.N. mission also expressed concerns about continuing acts of sexual violence committed by gangs against women and girls, as well as the effects of violence on children. During the reporting period, children were victims of sexual violence, human trafficking and gang recruitment. The U.N. also sounded the alarm about extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions by law enforcement officials, saying there were at least 106. This includes 96 by the Haiti National Police and 10 by the government prosecutor in the city of Miragoâne. Among the victims were six children around age 10.
Among the recommendations: Accelerate the full deployment of the Kenya-led mission and the establishment by Haitian authorities of a specialized judicial task force to combat mass crimes, including sexual violence. Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the multinational mission “has had very limited impact” on the security situation in Haiti due to its lack of equipment at the start of its deployment on June 25. This has affected the 410-member mission’s ability to engage in forceful operations to enter gangs’ strongholds, he said.
After Solino, the criminal coalition “Viv Ansanm” has now targeted Fort-National. At least two armed attacks were launched against the neighborhood over the past weekend and this Monday. According to multiple witnesses, the assailants set several homes on fire during their raid. There were reports of people injured by gunfire, and hundreds were forced to flee their homes for safety. Some were seen heading to areas like Lalue. https://lenouvelliste.com/en/article/251263/fort-national-lives-lost-and-homes-burned
Several bandits from the Viv Ansanm armed gang coalition were shot dead on Tuesday, November 5 and Wednesday, November 6, 2024, in operations by the Haitian National Police (PNH) in the Fort National neighborhood (toward the northeast of Port-au-Prince), according to information obtained by the online agency AlterPresse. In retaliation, the allies of the killed bandits again attacked Fort National on Thursday, November 7, 2024, where they again set fire to several houses, according to testimonies collected by AlterPresse. Several gunshots were heard in the area and its surroundings, creating severe panic.
Following the operations carried out in Fort National, the PNH declared, in a video message, that it had regained control of the districts of Fort National, which are the target of repeated attacks by members of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition. The police, who are also deployed in the vast Solino district, were able to regain control of Fort National, the Miragoâne market and Sylvia Street, the police institution said.
On the night of Saturday 2 to Sunday 3 November 2024, and during the day of Monday 4 November 2024, an unknown number of houses were set on fire during new repeated gang attacks in Fort National, according to available testimonies. Several residents injured by gunfire have been reported since Saturday, November 2, 2024, with these new offensives by armed bandits on the vast Fort National district. Many families had to abandon their homes to take refuge on the streets, particularly on John Brown Avenue, commonly known as Lalue, or with relatives.
These new attacks on Fort National come after those launched on Thursday, October 17, 2024 against Solino, where a relative calm has reigned for several days. PN agents stand guard day and night in Solino, where, despite everything, three Solino residents, lured into an ambush, were reportedly killed on the morning of Wednesday, November 6, 2024, by Viv Ansanm 's bandits, a Solino resident reported to AlterPresse. More than 12,600 people were forced to flee the Solino district and its surroundings, following attacks by the coalition of armed gangs Viv Ansam , perpetrated from Friday 18 to Thursday 31 October 2024, according to a count by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The majority of these displaced people have taken refuge in 14 sites, including seven that already existed before the armed gang offensives and seven newly created following them, IOM adds.
https://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article31110
US Deports people to PAP just days after Catholic Missionaries of Charity Hospital attacked
Days after a Catholic mission that treats up to 30,000 poor people a year became the latest target of armed gangs in a new wave of coordinated attacks, the Biden administration deported dozens of people back to Haiti in the midst of worsening humanitarian conditions and rampant violence. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flight left from Miami on Thursday morning and landed at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince shortly after 1 p.m. Haitian authorities had been told to expect 77 people onboard the aircraft, which like a U.S. deportation flight last month arrived in the volatile Caribbean country amid a surge in ramped up attacks by the gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm, Haitian Creole for Living Together.
For weeks, heavily armed Viv Ansanm members have been launching attacks on multiple fronts, overstretching the Haiti National Police, the country’s small army and the Kenya-led multinational police force. The spreading violence has caused widespread hunger and triggered mass displacements. Thousands of Haitians living in and around the capital, in its outskirts and in the neighboring Artibonite region have been forced to flee their homes. The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration said.Since the start of this latest violence, more than 21,000 people have been displaced, including residents in the town of Arcahaie, which has had 12 days of successive attacks.
On Saturday, Viv Ansanm members targeted the compound of the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation in Port-au-Prince’s Delmas neighborhood that Mother Teresa opened in 1979. After breaking into the nuns’ home, gang members looted the convent and hospital, then set them on fire. Though many people in the area have been injured or killed by the intense violence, none of the nuns were injured because police had asked the order to leave the area in August after shootings picked up in the area, according to one of the nuns. The sisters provide free healthcare to 30,000 people a year through an outpatient clinic, and offered free hospitalization to hundreds. The incident marked the first time that the beloved religious community, which has been serving the poor population in the Lower Delmas community of the capital for nearly 50 years, was attacked.
Pont-Sondé Community protests lack of response to attacks from armed group
The October 3rd Collective, composed of several civic organizations from the Pont Sondé community, mobilized over a thousand protesters along National Route 1, demanding the radical dismantling of the two main armed groups in the department.
The demonstrators, who walked about fifteen kilometers from the Pont Sondé intersection to downtown Saint-Marc, carried signs and tree branches, chanting and shouting, "If Pont Sondé falls, Saint-Marc won't be spared." This slogan was a reminder to the residents of Nissage Saget that their locality lies at the northern entrance to the city.
René Altidort, president of the October 3rd Collective, told the newspaper that "the people of Pont Sondé are forced to spend the night in the mountains when they cannot afford to return to Saint-Marc each afternoon to rest, more or less, in peace." The well-known sports journalist expressed his disappointment that "the high command of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) and the Conille government had no serious plans when they sent 11 armored vehicles and police from various specialized units to Pont Sondé after the massacre."
Contrary to public official reports, the collective's president stated that "nothing has been done in the Artibonite to address chronic insecurity," adding that "the people were expecting large police operations in the strongholds of the criminals." https://lenouvelliste.com/en/article/251338/pont-sonde-residents-protest-against-authorities-in-artibonite
Stories of Women Survivors in The New Humanitarian
By Pascale Solages, Nègès Mawon
Long a chronic harm for Haitian women and girls, the use of gender-based violence (GBV) has grown dramatically in scale and ruthlessness during the country’s ongoing political and security crisis, with gangs now deploying sexual abuse as a routine means of torture and control. According to a recent UN report, several local sources in different part of the capital, Port-au-Prince, said there was a “worrying increase” in cases of rape and other GBV in gang-controlled neighborhoods and displacement sites between April and June this year. In some areas, service providers reported receiving an average of 40 rape victims a day. Many cases still go unreported.
Women’s rights advocates have been documenting these abuses and demanding urgent action for years, including in a formal hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on International Women's Day in 2023. That action is still missing 20 months later, as women and girls endure ever-growing abuses in an effective vacuum of government services and anaemic international action. Overstretched local organisations, themselves ravaged by insecurity and humanitarian collapse, are often the sole providers of services and care. The painful physical, emotionally devastating, and often lonely experiences of Haiti's women and girls can become lost in the immensity of the overall violence, or seem almost abstract as the assaults become so routine.
In collaboration with Nègès Mawon, the Haitian feminist organisation I co-founded to support survivors and to advocate for tackling the structural causes of GBV, The New Humanitarian will publish, weekly, the stories of six women who survived brutal sexual violence by gangs. These testimonies are based on interviews conducted by women who play the role of their marraines (“godmothers" in french) in one of Nègès Mawon’s assistance programmes. The marraines, who are themselves long-time survivors of GBV, counsel, support, and accompany more recent survivors in their attempts to recover. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/first-person/2024/11/05/six-haitian-women-struggles-recover-rape-gangs
Corruption in Haiti’s Profitable Glass Eel industry
A group of around twenty individuals holds the exclusive right to export eels to Haiti.
These entrepreneurs, members of the National Association for the Protection of Aquatic Resources (ANAPRA), are abusing their dominant position, industry players denounce . According to testimonies and documents reviewed by AyiboPost, ANAPRA members exploit fishermen by setting derisory purchase prices for this tiny fish, which is in high demand in some countries.
Some entrepreneurs, members of other organizations such as the National Association of River Eel Suppliers of Haiti (ANAFARH), see their operating permits not renewed without explanation or their application rejected by the State. A partial list contains the name of at least one close friend of former President Michel Martelly. AyiboPost's efforts with officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR) to obtain the complete list of exporters were unsuccessful.
Eel exploitation has accelerated in Haiti over the last decade. The international demand for eel, particularly in China and Japan, is explained by the great gastronomic value that this fish has in the traditional dishes of these countries. This popularity is putting increasing pressure on natural stocks, leading to a rarefaction of the species and at the same time fueling a flourishing black market.
In August 2019, the MARNDR announced measures to regularize the market. Export fees were then set at 1,500 gourdes per kilo, whereas they previously amounted to 40 gourdes. This regularization, carried out under the presidency of Jovenel Moïse, was accompanied by a "monopolization" of the sector for the benefit of ANAPRA, criticize several entrepreneurs. The "small group of people" authorized to export "sets the price of the products, which remains disadvantageous for the entire chain," Jésubon Nancy, president of ANAFARH, told AyiboPost.
https://ayibopost.com/monopole-et-exploitation-la-face-cachee-du-commerce-des-anguilles-en-haiti/
ANALYSIS
Weighing the Case for a New Peacekeeping Mission to Haiti
By International Crisis Group
On 21 October, Leslie Voltaire, the current head of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, formally requested that the international security mission presently in the country be converted to a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation. This idea has been floated at the UN Security Council before, during negotiations over renewing the mission’s mandate in September. The Council did not vote to shift to a blue-helmet force then, but the U.S. is tabling the proposal again in the hope that a peacekeeping mission can be approved by the end of the year. The push for returning UN peacekeepers to Haiti just five years after they left comes after a new wave of depredations by criminal gangs, including what appears to be one of the country’s worst massacres in decades and the launch of coordinated attacks in parts of the capital Port-au-Prince and other cities. Deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) to Haiti began only four months ago, but disappointment in its achievements is rising fast.
From the time of the mission’s arrival until September, most of the gangs retreated to their strongholds in Port-au-Prince, allowing Haitian security forces and the MSS to beef up patrols in areas that had previously been strictly off limits to them. Recently, however, gangs have scaled up their attacks again. On 3 October, gang members massacred 115 people in Pont-Sondé, a small city in the Artibonite valley north east of the capital, in retaliation for locals’ refusal to comply with extortion demands. Gangs also kicked off coordinated attacks in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods of Solino, Tabarre and Champ de Mars, and mounted assaults on the towns of Arcahaie, Estère and Cabaret, all north of the capital, in mid-October. Despite efforts by the police and the MSS to push back the criminal groups, Haitians complain that security has improved little, with many contending that conditions have actually worsened as the gangs spread to new regions. To complicate matters further, disputes within the transitional administration created in April – particularly between the nine-member transitional presidential council and the prime minister – have led observers to fear that the government could collapse.
Haiti’s Transition Can’t Succeed Without Women’s Leadership
By Danielle Saint-Lot, United States Institute for Peace
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Haitian women are currently underrepresented at all levels of Haiti’s transitional process.
Rather than accept token inclusion, Haitian women should build their own collective political power.
They can do so through grassroots organizing and cooperation with youth movements.
Read more: https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/10/haitis-transition-cant-succeed-without-womens-leadership
Potential Impacts of Trump Election on US-Haiti Relations
Attorney Frandley Denis Julien analyzed the potential impact of Donald Trump’s election on US-Haiti relations and the ongoing initiatives under the Biden administration. On Magik 9 on Thursday, November 7, 2024, the Haitian-born lawyer predicted that with Trump’s return to power, certain initiatives and issues, particularly those related to Haiti, might lack continuity.
According to Attorney Julien, this situation could prompt the Biden administration to make swift decisions, especially on matters of security and international cooperation, before Trump can impose his own changes. Among the priorities discussed, Frandley Denis Julien highlighted the Multinational Security Support Mission, an international initiative largely funded by the Biden administration, aimed at stabilizing Haiti.
“What I fear with Trump’s return to power is the abandonment of the previous administration’s efforts to address Haiti’s problems. We will just leave the resolution of these issues to Haitian actors. However, the ability of Haitian actors to solve these problems has been significantly weakened, especially due to American interference over the years,” Attorney Julien said, expressing his concerns after the Republican Party’s victory in the US presidential election. https://lenouvelliste.com/en/article/251339/us-elections-attorney-frandley-denis-julien-concerned-about-future-of-us-haiti-security-cooperation