They call themselves ‘Chen Mechan’ or ‘400 Mawozo’ and they terrorize the inhabitants of the capital Port-au-Prince. Haiti has already suffered a lot from natural disasters and corona, to which is added the extreme violence by rival gangs.
Public life on the Caribbean island of Haiti is disrupted by gang violence. In the capital Port-au-Prince, civilians have been forced to take shelter in their homes in recent weeks due to murders, kidnappings and street shootings between rival gangs.
According to the local Human Rights Network (RNDDH), the violence has killed 148 people since April 24. The partly corrupt police can or will not do much against powerful gangs such as ‘Chen Mechan’ or ‘400 Mawozo’, who shoot at each other’s members with automatic weapons and sometimes attack entire neighborhoods. The leader of 400 Mawozo, Joly ‘Yonyon’ Germina, 29, was indicted this week by the United States for his part in the kidnapping of 17 missionaries from a Christian organization last year. The group managed to escape after two months.
According to local police chief Franz Elbe, 5,000 arrests have been made in the last six months, most of them related to murder, violence and drug trafficking. Local media report horror stories of rapes of women and girls, people being chopped to death with machetes or set on fire with car tires. Last year alone, 1,200 people were kidnapped, most of them ransom.
Thousands of people have fled the capital. According to a report by Unicef, half a million children are no longer receiving an education because of violence between rival gangs. Most traders close their shops, tired of the extortions that are rife.
criminals
The penniless Haiti seems to be spared little. In addition to mega damage from earthquakes, devastating hurricanes plus economic malaise from corona and corruption, the island is now ravaged by unscrupulous criminals who terrorize even hospitals and doctors.
Ellen van der Velden, operational manager of Doctors Without Borders, has just returned from Haiti. Despite the dangers, the organization remains active on the island for the time being, even though health care in Port-au-Prince is now completely disrupted.
In one of the few hospitals, 96 people have been treated with gunshot wounds since April 24. “I’ve been to one of our mobile clinics in the west of Port-au-Prince. In neighborhoods that have been taken over by the gangs, regular healthcare is closed. The employees of the Ministry of Health find it too dangerous to come to their workplace. We still manage to get negotiated access because everyone ultimately wants healthcare, for themselves and for women and children. Then you talk to everyone relevant from the patients themselves to the local authorities and also the gang leaders and administrators as far as they have something to say. As long as it is agreed that they will leave us alone when we give help, then we will.”
You don’t often come across so much misery as Haiti has to deal with. “It’s not entirely coincidental. This also has to do with colonization and slavery. Haiti has wrested itself out of this through an insurgency and it is still an unstable country. But if you are a rich country you can handle many of these problems. Haiti does not have the resources.”
Poverty
About a third of the population of Haiti lives in extreme poverty and has to make do with two euros a day. Four million people do not have enough meals a day, according to local economist Etzer Emile.
How hard is it to help a country partly run by criminals? You can imagine that donors drop out. Van der Velden: ,,They don’t do that. In the end, it is always about individual people that we know how to reach. I was sitting there in the waiting room and then you notice that those people try to make something of it, despite everything. They are very grateful that we are there with a clinic. And that must be it, that you can help a few people. Most of the people who support us don’t give specifically for countries but give for people.”
Médecins Sans Frontières has previously departed from places where it was not possible to provide sufficient help due to the insecurity of the employees. This is not yet the case in Haiti. “The consideration is always what can be done and what are the risks. As long as that means we can do a lot and run relatively little risk, then we will stay.”
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