Haiti on ‘brink of civil war’, humanitarian group warns
Mercy Corps is sounding the alarm about escalating violence between gangs and civilians as Haiti faces a hunger crisis.
Haiti is on the brink of civil war, the humanitarian group Mercy Corps has warned, as violence between criminal gangs and civilians threatens to increase.
Mercy Corps said Monday that the deteriorating security situation and rising prices have also led to a hunger crisis in the Caribbean nation.
With the escalating violence — especially in the capital Port-au-Prince, where gangs have taken over large parts of the city — families are losing access to basic necessities, including food and clean water, the group added.
“The population is being forced to make impossible decisions, such as choosing between taking children to a hospital or health clinics to treat cholera at the risk of being kidnapped and killed, or staying at home and hoping they get better,” said Lunise Jules, Mercy Corps country director for Haiti.
Jules added that many residents are beginning to wonder, “Why not retaliate and take the law into your own hands?”
Last week, a mob lynched at least 13 suspected gang members already in police custody.
Violence has been exacerbated by a series of crises facing the country of more than 11 million people. Haiti has suffered intermittent natural disasters, gang violence, a cholera outbreak and long-standing political instability, exacerbated by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021.
Haiti’s de facto leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, is facing a crisis of legitimacy. He was chosen by Moise for the post just days before he was killed. Presidential and parliamentary elections have been postponed indefinitely since 2021, making a political transition impossible.
Meanwhile, widespread violence has impeded access to healthcare facilities, forced the closure of schools and clinics and exacerbated food insecurity, with residents of gang-controlled areas cut off from critical supplies.
Mercy Corps, which provides cash assistance to tens of thousands of people in Haiti, said on Monday that nearly half of the country’s population is starving as a result of the crisis.
“Haiti is no longer a functional country,” Judes Jonathas, the group’s deputy program director in Haiti, said in the statement.
Last week, Mary Isabel Salvadorthe head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), expressed concern over the “surge of violence” in the country.
Speaking to the UN Security Council, Salvador said there were 1,674 reported murders, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings in the first quarter of 2023 — an increase from 692 such incidents in the same period a year earlier.
“Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in Port-au-Prince and outside the capital,” she said.
“The horrific violence in gang-infested areas, including sexual violence, particularly against women and girls, is typical of the terror that afflicts much of Haiti’s population.”