Caribbean Port Services, the operator of Haiti's main port, reported that it was forced to close the facility indefinitely, amid a wave of gang-fueled violence that escalated on Thursday, March 7. Criminal gangs once again generated chaos in the streets after the interim prime minister, Patrick Michel Boivert, extended the state of emergency and curfew for a month in the Western department, to which the capital belongs. Meanwhile, the UN warns that the country's health system is about to collapse, due to a shortage of personnel and supplies.
Haiti is left without its main port, at a time when violence brings the country to its knees.
Caribbean Port Services (CPS), the company that has managed the country's largest port since 1978, suspended all loading and unloading activities for an “indefinite” period of time, after gangs once again sowed trouble on Thursday, March 7. terror in the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital, and other locations in the country.
“CPS management informs the general public and its clients in particular that during the recent disturbances to public order it has been a victim, since March 1, and again last night, of malicious acts of sabotage and vandalism,” he explained, through a statement, the company that until now has managed the place.
However, the company noted that it is working with security forces, in an attempt to find a way to resume its activities as soon as possible.
Violence escalated Thursday amid a day of protests in which thousands demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who remains out of the country. Furthermore, in the midst of the extension of the state of emergency in the Western department, to which Port-au-Prince belongs, for about a month, and the curfew, at least until March 11, in order to “regain control of the situation”.
“When I went out yesterday I saw gang members dressed in black. There were many. I was about to go in immediately. I told him 'I have arthritis in my foot' and he told me that he was not out to kill us (…) It all happened in front of my eyes. They set fire to a car and the fire spread to our house,” Gerard Jean Baptiste, a resident of the capital, described the new outbreak of violence.
In Henry's absence, the extension of the emergency measure was decreed by the interim prime minister, Patrick Michel Boivert, and will last at least until April 3.
According to the text of the decree, the objective of the provision – from which public force agents on duty, firefighters, ambulance personnel, health workers and duly identified journalists are excluded – is “to restore order and take appropriate measures in order to regain control of the situation.”
Gang violence worsens conditions for girls and women in Haiti
This was alerted this Friday, March 8, by the UN Resident and Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in the Caribbean nation, Ulrika Richardson, within the framework of International Women's Day.
The deterioration of the living conditions of women and girls in Haiti, due to the violence of criminal gangs, has forced the displacement of thousands of civilians, mostly women.
A situation that also makes access to basic social services extremely difficult and aggravates the precarious situation in the country.
“Today, too many women and young people in Haiti are victims of indiscriminate violence committed by armed gangs,” Richardson said.
Among the abominable crimes against them, stands out sexual violence, which “is used as a weapon of war, intimidation, territorial control and domination”denounced the UN.
Women and girls are left practically without any type of help or protection, since the presence of organizations that work to prevent gender violence in internally displaced persons centers have been closed or reduced, precisely for security reasons.
UN: Haiti's health system is “on the brink of collapse”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) highlighted the shortage of personnel, equipment, beds, medicines and blood to treat patients with gunshot wounds, so the health system of The impoverished nation is “on the verge of collapse,” the entity said.
Two dozen trucks carrying vital equipment, medical supplies and food were stuck in the capital's port, according to the UN World Food Program (WFP), which said it had suspended its maritime transport service, citing the ” unsafety”.
According to the WFP, that was the only service left to transport food and medical supplies for humanitarian and development organizations from Port-au-Prince to other parts of the country.
For its part, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) indicated that it estimates that At least 2,300 people died from violence in 2023, in the Cité Soleil neighborhood alone, in Port-au-Prince, where 9% of the capital's population lives.
“It is likely that the real magnitude of the violence is much greater,” highlighted the humanitarian organization. The aid group had reopened an emergency clinic in the capital this week, but it was closed after gunmen intercepted an ambulance and killed a patient in the street.
Although Haiti has been facing a deep political, economic and security crisis for years, the situation has worsened after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, mainly with the impetus of the gangs that control most of the capital.
But in recent months, the anger of thousands of people has been added to the violence of criminal gangs, due to the permanence of Henry in power, who was supposed to leave office on February 7 and hand over power to an elected government, according to an agreement that he signed in December 2022.
Since he went to Kenya to sign a security agreement, on March 1, for the deployment of 1,000 Nairobi police officers in the Caribbean country, Henry has not returned.
Henry, who has been in Puerto Rico since Tuesday, spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who urged him to accelerate the change of government to mitigate the security crisis.
It is still unknown when the premier will return, while gangs threaten to overthrow him.
With Reuters, AFP and EFE
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