The world, currently riveted by more than two years of Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine and the escalating human toll of the Israel-Hamas conflict over the last five months must also pay attention to the crises that have brought our Caribbean neighbour, Haiti, to a breaking point.
The turmoil in that French-speaking nation has been taking place, almost without pause, for more than two centuries.
That is the backdrop against which yesterday’s emergency meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, between leaders of Caricom and representatives from the United States, France, Canada and the United Nations must be viewed.
This is not a single crisis but multiple crises on an unprecedented scale that are rapidly getting worse. The widespread violence and political instability now getting global attention are occurring on top of the cholera outbreak, severe drought and economic collapse that has been ravaging the nation for years.
Yesterday’s talks, an urgent attempt to address Haiti’s spiralling instability, is just the latest attempt to bring normalcy to a nation that has had more than its share of man-made and natural disasters.
The latest violent upheavals stem from attempts to oust Ariel Henry who took charge in 2021 following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Henry is unelected and widely viewed as illegitimate.
But there is much more to the situation in Haiti and getting to the root of these crises requires going much further back into that nation’s troubled history, much further back than the 2010 earthquake, or even the 29-year dictatorial rule of Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier.
Haiti’s troubles originated in the years following its independence in 1804 when France exacted decades of reparations — a sum equivalent to nearly $20 billion today — resulting in a cycle of debt from which the country is unable to escape.
Haiti’s troubles throughout the decades have been exacerbated by earthquakes and hurricanes, on top of environmental degradation made worse by climate change.
Violence and disaster have taken a heavy toll on Haiti’s population of approximately 11.8 million and there is no relief in sight.
Last year, gang-related violence claimed almost 4,000 lives and displaced more than 300,000 people. Hundreds more have been added to those numbers in just these first few months of 2024 with most of the chaos centred on the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Criminal gangs are threatening to increase the carnage if Henry, who is under increasing pressure to step down, is allowed back into the country. He has been blocked from returning to Haiti since his visit to Kenya to sign an agreement for the deployment of a multinational security mission.
However, even before Henry’s absence, the country had been in a state of electoral and constitutional turmoil with not a single elected government official in place.
The power vacuum that has existed since the assassination of Moise is being mercilessly exploited by the close to 100 criminal gangs that now control the streets of the capital. Prominent among them is the G9 alliance, led by former special forces police officer Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, which has introduced new levels of brutality and instability to a nation already on its knees.
Given the gravity of the situation in Haiti where there has been one crisis after another, nothing less than intense, hands-on interventions are needed to correct centuries of historic wrongs.
The Kingston meeting was just the start.