UN plans ‘airbridge’ to transport crucial aid into Haiti
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The United Nations is planning to establish an “airbridge” to move crucial aid into crisis-hit Haiti from neighboring Dominican Republic.
Months of mounting gang violence have internally displaced more than 360,000 people and left many parts of the island without access to food and medicine. On Monday Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would resign after he appoints a transnational council.
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Haiti is facing an ‘insurgency’
The U.N. has characterized the unrest as an uptick in gang violence — but that does not go far enough to address the breakdown Haiti is currently experiencing, Caribbean policy expert Alexander Causwell wrote in Foreign Policy. He argues that Haiti is facing an insurgency, saying the international community should refer to it as such. “In framing Haiti’s situation as a mere gang problem, global actors risk committing to an ill-prepared and ill-fated intervention that will fail to secure the country and needlessly endanger those deployed,” he said.
Gangs have unified, forcing Henry’s hand
Henry, who came to power unelected after the assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, has long resisted calls for his resignation. That changed when Haiti’s roughly 200 gangs began working together, with a top rebel leader warning of civil war and genocide unless he stepped down. “Prime Minister Ariel resigned not because of politics, not because of the massive street demonstrations against him over the years, but because of the violence gangs have carried out,” one Haitian consultant told The New York Times. The gangs are likely trying to consolidate power ahead of the arrival of 1,000 Kenyan police officers as part of an international security mission in Port-au-Prince: The gangs respond to “fear and force,” a U.N. human rights expert told the Times. “They fear a force stronger than they are.”
Gang leader ‘Barbecue’ has wide influence
Among the most visible of Haiti’s gang leaders is Jimmy Chérizier, otherwise known as “Barbecue.” He has presented himself as a unifying force for Haitians, arguing that he is fighting for the country’s common good. His control over Port-au-Prince’s fuel terminal and port have given him unquestioned influence over Haiti, and Chérizier has taken credit for unifying the gangs. But experts have warned that other leaders exert far more control: “A lot of the most powerful characters are people who don’t give interviews to journalists,” one researcher told the BBC.
