The UN Humanitarian Air Service is scheduled to restart flights to Haiti on Wednesday, a week after several planes attempting to land at Port-au-Prince airport came under small arms fire. The attacks wounded a flight attendant and resulted in the US Federal Aviation Administration banning all commercial flights to the island nation for a month.
Despite the arrival this summer of a Kenyan-led international force to help Haitian National Police push back against growing gang violence, the gangs have continued to sow chaos. The UN estimates that 20,000 people fled Port-au-Prince over the course of four days of fighting last week, and on Monday, an attack on the affluent suburb of Petion-Ville — as safe a place as you’ll find in the capital — resulted in at least 28 deaths. Women and girls are being victimized through the systemic use of sexual violence by the gangs, and medical providers have reported a “worrying increase” of such attacks this year, with some areas seeing 40 rape victims seeking treatment daily, just a fraction of the total.
Police are far from blameless: Doctors Without Borders says cops attacked one of their ambulances on Nov. 11, tear gassed the paramedics, held them captive, and summarily executed at least two patients, who the police said were gang members. There is chaos in the corridors of power, as GZERO reported last week, with erstwhile Prime Minister Garry Conille forced out of office and accusations of corruption flying in the transitional presidential council.
Is there hope? Not much. The resumption of aid flights may help some Haitians avoid acute hunger but will do little to end the violence. We’re watching for another 600 Kenyan troops to be deployed this month as promised, and to see whether other countries that have pledged forces follow through. We’re also following US efforts to transform the Kenyan-led mission into a proper UN peacekeeping operation before the Trump administration takes power in late January.
