Following the kidnapping of US aid worker Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter last Thursday in Haiti, fed up citizens took to the country’s streets to demand their release. This event adds to the long list of abductions committed recently in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, in a context dominated by gang violence that has led to the announcement of the cessation of operations of some NGOs and the mobilization of the international community proposing a peace intervention.
In the heart of the gang-controlled territory of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, the robust echo of hundreds of voices clamoring for “freedom” and condemnation of the kidnapping of US aid worker Axil was heard on July 31. dorsainvil And your daughter. Defying the violent context, the community near the headquarters of the organization for which Dorsainvil worked called to show their discontent with what happened.
The protesters emphasized the importance of the humanitarian and nursing work that Alix performed for the community. “She is doing a good job in the community, release her,” warned one of the protest posters.
The American worker, who provided her nursing services for the humanitarian association ‘El Roi Haiti’, was abducted along with her daughter by a group of armed men when she was attending the association’s small clinic.
“When I saw the gun I was very scared, (…) I told her ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go,'” commented one of the witnesses, referring to the degree of violence used in the kidnapping. Some members of the community also pointed out that the group of men who perpetrated the crime requested a million dollars for the freedom of Dorsainvil and her daughter.
“Alix is deeply compassionate and loving and considers Haiti her home and Haitians her friends and family,” the president of the religious association ‘El Roi Haiti’ said in a statement over the weekend. “Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering,” he added.
The same day Dorsainvil’s kidnapping was reported, the US State Department issued an alert to avoid traveling to Haiti and ordered the departure of all US personnel not performing emergency duties.
Emphasizing the increase in kidnappings that frequently have citizens of the North American country as victims, the State Department justified the measure based on the increase in the rates of violence on the Caribbean island.
Between the potentialization of crime, violence and kidnappings for economic ransoms, in Haiti the access of hundreds of people to basic services provided by NGOs that are considering closing operations given the dangerous environment is in danger.
In July, the organization Doctors Without Borders announced the suspension of operations at one of its hospitals after it was reported that a command of twenty armed men entered the hospital, taking a patient from the operating room.
These organizations have covered the provision of basic services such as education, health and food in marginalized areas that the State has not been able to support.
Kidnapping of journalists in Haiti
Blondine Tanis, radio worker Renovation FMwas kidnapped entering her home in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince on July 21.
The captors requested a ransom from the journalist’s family, whom they pressured by beating Tanis. The ransom was paid and Blondine was released on Sunday, July 30, the same day that she had to go to the hospital due to the effects suffered by her physical mistreatment while she was deprived of her liberty.
Along with Blondine Tanis, Pierre Louis Opont, owner of the local newspaper, was held captive Tele Pluriel, who was also deprived of his liberty at the door of his house in the Haitian capital on June 20. “We no longer have the means. We have already given the amount of money that we could raise together in the family,” his sister Justine Opont said in a voice message.
Before the kidnapping of Pierre Louis, his wife, Marie Lucie Bonhomme, experienced the same kidnapping nightmare in Port-au-Prince when on June 13, 2023, she was abducted from her home in Tabarre, northeast of the city.
The kidnapping was committed by the Kraze Baryè, a feared local gang, who took her to their base and then released her.
Violence and kidnappings have besieged the Haitian capital for years. In the last five years, at least 30 communicators have been murdered, kidnapped or attempted kidnapped.
After the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, violence has intensified. In less than three years, it is estimated that around 16 journalists have been kidnapped, two of whom were murdered.
Gangs and the deep decline of the country
Neither kidnappings nor the social discontent they generate are new issues for the Caribbean country.
Already on March 29, 2022, thousands of people gathered in Port-au-Prince to protest against the colossal increases in insecurity that had been taking place since 2018 when Haiti began with a deep institutional, economic and public security crisis, all elements aggravated from July 2021.
The Caribbean nation is then branded as “no man’s land/lawless land” where communities end up being displaced by violence and gangs claim dominance over public and private spaces.
![A woman and her daughter run through a barricade erected by police officers protesting government misdirection of the police in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, January 26, 2023. The latest crisis in Haiti became fully noticeable after the assassination of the President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, when Prime Minister Ariel Henry emerged as the national leader of a conflict of powers, while in the country nearly 200 gangs have taken advantage of the chaos and battled for control.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/5eb92364-30bd-11ee-826d-005056a90284/AP23031025269132.jpg)
Not even the Police are capable of maintaining social order in the country, since it should be remembered that in January 2023, when seven police officers were killed in armed confrontations, the crisis of ungovernability and insecurity reached worrying levels.
With an average of five police officers murdered per month from the arrival of Ariel Henry to power and up to January of this year, there is a record of 78 fatalities in the public security force.
In Haiti there has been a series of crises at different levels for several decades, the instability that this generates has favored the elites taking advantage of the situation to satisfy their private appetites.
“We are imposing sanctions on those economic elites in Haiti that continue to take advantage of the instability and finance armed gangs,” Canadian President Justin Trudeau said at a press conference on July 31. “We cannot do the same (as an international community) and hope things change,” he added.
Kenya announces its willingness to lead a peacekeeping force: Haiti on the brink of intervention?
Faced with the catastrophic scenario that is taking place in Port-au-Prince (and in general in the Caribbean country) António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, has urged the Security Council and the international community in general to act quickly to guarantee conditions that allow the deployment of a new multinational peacekeeping force.
“At the request of the Group of Nations Friends of Haiti, Kenya has agreed to positively consider leading a Multinational Force to Haiti,” Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said in a statement.
The African country has announced its commitment to send and deploy in Haitian territory a contingent of 1,000 police officers whose mission will be to train and support the national police forces to restore normalcy in the country and protect the strategic infrastructure of the State.
HAITI
At the request of the Friends of Haiti Group of Nations, Kenya has accepted to positively consider leading a Multi-National Force to Haiti. Kenya’s commitment is to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police restore normalcy in the… pic.twitter.com/CBwIlAOSyd— Dr. Alfred N. Mutua (@DrAlfredMutua) July 29, 2023
It should be remembered that in October 2022 Ariel Henry, who assumed power after the assassination of Moïse, had requested the intervention of the international community to alleviate the security crisis that was latent throughout the territory. At that time, Haitians met in the streets to protest vigorously against the initiative.
The social refusal to accept international intervention had various reasons, one of which was the questioned reputation of the previous humanitarian missions in the country, which have accumulated dozens of complaints of human rights violations, sexual abuse, prostitution, among other serious accusations against different organizations. international.
Faced with a complex panorama, which puts the Haitian population between suffering gang violence or accepting foreign intervention, the country must make a solid balance that allows it to get out of the multidimensional crossroads in which it finds itself.
With EFE, Reuters and AP
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