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FILE PHOTO: A Kenyan police officer walks in front of an armoured personnel carrier during a joint operation with Haitian police, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti July 29, 2024.
Haitian leaders condemn Macron for calling them “morons”
Haiti’s government was not amused on Friday after French President Emmanuel Macron wascaught on camera calling the island nation’s leaders “morons” for ousting their former prime minister amid escalating gang violence. Macronalso blamed Haitians for “letting drug trafficking take over,” sparking outrage in the former French colony.
The comments have led to renewed demands for reparations for payments Haiti made to France back in 1804. The bill was to account for so-called “lost property,” including slaves, after the country declared independence. Activists claim the payments amounted to over $100 billion and engendered a cycle of perpetual economic and political instability.
Violence has again reached crisis levels. Armed gangs control over 85% of the capital of Port-au-Prince and have attacked prisons, police stations, and the city’s international airport, whichwas closed for the second time this month after gangs fired at passenger planes. This cut off food aid to a populationwhere nearly 6,000 people are starving and 5.4 million are experiencing crisis levels of hunger.
Despite hopes for change, the latest UN-backed security mission led by Kenya has failed to stem the violence. At least 108 suspected gang members were killed over a three-day peroiod last week, and Doctors without Borders has suspended operations in the country. The US pushed for a full UN peacekeeping mission at the Security Council last week, but Russia and China opposed the mission.Haiti's Prime Minister Garry Conille shakes hands with members of the first contingent of Kenyan police as part of a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti June 26, 2024.
Haiti takes back major hospital from gangs
On Tuesday, Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Conillevisited the country’s largest hospital in the capital city of Port-au-Prince to celebrate taking it back from armed gangs on Sunday.
Haiti has been engulfed in deadly gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. Since then, over 200 armed gangs formed large alliances that brought Haiti to a state of anarchy, with intensifying violence that eventually forced former Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation this spring. Coordinated gang attacks in February — strategically timed to occur while Henry was overseas — seized control of harbors and airports, effectively cutting the country off from the world.
Conille, a former doctor himself, described the hospital as a “war zone” that had been left inoperable by the violence. In recent months, gangs have taken control of 80% of the capital and driven Haiti’s already weak health system to the brink of collapse.
The Haitian government’s reclamation of this hospital, expected to be back in full service by February 2026, is a rare victory for Haiti and an early success for the UN-backed, Kenyan-led police mission that has been fighting on the ground since it deployed on June 25.
What’s next? Can Haitians with the help of their Kenyan allies hold the territory they’ve retaken while also ingratiating themselves with ordinary people who have endured years of violence and scarcity? If they can win back territory without losing hearts and minds, they may create a window to begin the long road to recovery.
FILE PHOTO: Street vendors carry goods for sale as they walk near the Presidential Palace after Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry pledged to step down following months of escalating gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 12, 2024.
US evacuates citizens from Haiti
The US Embassy in Haiti evacuated more than 30 US citizens who were still in the country on Sunday, as unchecked violence shuttered all but one hospital in the capital.
A chartered flight left from the northern city of Cap-Haitien, where the airport has been occasionally functional. The State Department said it would continue chartering flights as long as it could do so safely. The airport in Port-au-Prince has been closed since gangs attacked it on March 4 to prevent the return of now-outgoing Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Gangs have also ransacked and burned multiple hospitals in the capital. A BBC crew who went to the State University of Haiti hospital found no staff in the facility, which was full of patients, and at least one corpse.
Is there hope? Six parties confirmed they would participate in a transitional council to replace Henry, but former Senator Jean-Charles Moïse rejected the seat he was offered. Moïse said he prefers an alternate council organized by convicted drug trafficker Guy Philippe, which lacks international support.
It’s all talk until someone can tackle the heavily armed gangs. Haitian police say they mounted an attack against the most powerful gang leader and self-declared revolutionary, Jimmy Chérizier, aka Barbecue, on Saturday, but failed to kill or capture him.
A woman with a gunshot wound is transported by two men on a motorcycle as Haiti remains in state of emergency due to the violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 9, 2024.
Haitian Interior Ministry torched in weekend violence
Regional leaders are meeting Monday in Jamaica to discuss Haiti’s political crisis after intense violence in Port-au-Prince saw gangs burn down the country’s Interior Ministry this weekend. They also attacked police stations near the National Palace in offensives that have paralyzed the country. The US Embassy has evacuated non-essential staff.
Washington is pushing for a transitional council to replace unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is stuck outside Haiti. He left for Nairobi on Feb. 25 to try to salvage a multinational intervention force to be led by Kenya. The leader of the largest gang coalition, Jimmy Chérizier (aka Barbecue), used Henry’s absence as an opportunity to play for power.
What happens now? Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, the president of regional bloc CARICOM, says he is in talks with Henry and other Haitian power players.
We expect Henry to step down – without support from Haitians, the US, or regional leaders, how can he hang on?
The tricky question is who comes next. Guy Philippe, a convicted drug trafficker who led the 2004 coup, is building support for his “National Awakening” movement, and some Haitians say he is in a position to negotiate with the gangs. But considering he’s fresh out of a US prison, don’t expect Washington to back him.