The state of Haiti is dormant.
Despite a spike in violence in Port-au-Prince that led to the resignation of the nation’s prime minister more than two weeks ago, the composition of the presidential transitional council remains undisclosed.
The illicit weapons trade, which has given rise to the gangs that have taken control, is one of the issues this council will have to deal with.
There has been a departure from the capital due to the increase in violence.
David Charles, 14, is one of the departing group. His father, Israel, is anticipating his son’s bus to arrive in Cap-Haitien with a mixture of nervousness and joy.
A carriage pulls to the side of the road, its windows boarded up. Anticipating, he smiles. David, his 14-year-old son, shortly descends the stairs with his bags.
David has succeeded in leaving Port-au-Prince, which is currently engulfed in political unrest and armed gang violence. According to UN estimates, gangs currently control 80% of the violence that has engulfed Haiti, with most of it concentrated in the capital.
Israel did not want him “to become a victim,” even if he had been living there without his parents for the past two years in order to complete his degree.
He decided to take his son to Cap-Haitien, a safer city in the country, in response to this month’s violent outburst.
“It took over six hours to complete the journey. “I kept praying the entire time,” David declares. “There were numerous gunshots in one place, the bus driver later informed us.”
Haiti is grappling with a surge in gang-related violence due to the proliferation of illegal guns in the country. A UN report in January found that every type of gun, including high-powered rifles, is flooding Port-au-Prince, fueling the violence. Estimates put half a million legal and illegal weapons in Haiti as of 2020.
The UN has identified clandestine airstrips built for humanitarian purposes after the 2010 earthquake that are now hardly monitored. Haitian authorities seized a large haul of dozens of weapons and 15,000 rounds of ammunition in July 2022.
The US has expressed its commitment to tackle the problem of guns and gangs, with plans to establish a new policing unit in Haiti to address weapons trafficking. However, Haiti’s people are trapped in another vicious circle of violence powered by illegal guns, with no head of state or government. One woman, Juliette Dorson, fled Port-au-Prince after surviving a shooting that killed ten people, including her 22-year-old business partner, Luc. She believes that the government has not done anything to stop the violence and that it is now too complicated to stop.
(BBC)
