The dire situation in Haiti today is one that urgently requires humanitarian and peacekeeping intervention and raises, once again, serious questions about Caricom's relevance amid the turmoil facing this region's poorest nation. As it stands now, close to 60 per cent of Haiti’s capital is dominated by gangs whose violence and sexual attacks have caused thousands to flee their homes, according to the United Nations humanitarian chief in Haiti Ulrika Richardson. It has left nearly 20,000 people in the capital facing “catastrophic famine-like conditions” as a cholera outbreak spreads throughout the impoverished nation.
As Haiti descends into further anarchy, half of its population is in urgent need of food assistance as the number of cholera deaths has risen to 283. But where is Caricom's tangible response to back up a stated commitment to provide help to the people of Haiti in their hour of need?
Regional leaders met in an emergency session two months ago and gave a firm commitment to supply humanitarian and technical assistance towards the re-establishment of democratic governance in Port-au-Prince. But by its very acknowledgement that any such assistance was first dependent on efforts to stabilise Haiti's security situation, Caricom, in its communiqué following that October meeting, admitted that its own plan was imperilled and therefore immediately called instead for Haiti’s international partners to provide “short-term assistance to address the security and humanitarian crises."
However, even that appeal remains fraught with challenges given the reluctance of some regional states to fully back a peacekeeping force, for fear that it could be seen as support for the current unelected interim government in Haiti, which came to power after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July last year.
Also included in its October statement, Caricom called for "all stakeholders in Haiti to come together with urgency at this critical juncture in the country’s history to bring an end to the protracted political stalemate in the interest of the people of the country and choose nation above self-interest.
"But as the crisis deepens with deaths from starvation and cholera, and widespread rape, including that of children, addressing the political stalemate is the least of the Haitian people's problems.Their situation desperately calls for some sort of intervention that can suppress the violence in Port-au-Prince.
Caricom’s future relevance also requires stronger efforts to remove all doubt that the regional body is more than a spectator when its members desperately need it the most.