THE MURDER AND mayhem on the streets of Haiti’s capital has eased but, as sporadic violence continues, local community groups are working with an Irish aid agency to bring aid to violence ravaged neighbourhoods.
The Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has seen an almost complete destruction of society in recent months as gang war erupted for control of the ravaged Caribbean country.
As previously reported by The Journal the gang war has seen pitched battles on the streets, hundreds killed and sexual violence used on a scale unseen in most unrest.
The violence is centred around a number of gangs who are using murder and rape to wrestle power from the fragile Government in Haiti.
Heavily armed gangs sow terror in much of the capital Port-au-Prince and, critically, blocked distribution of goods from the main port for a time, as a resurgence of cholera threatens public health in the impoverished nation.
Jimmy Chérizier is the leader of the biggest gang, G9 – he is a former police officer and is now leading the worst of the violence. He is ominously known as “Barbeque”.
A UN report has found that besides the violence and the systematic use of sexual assaults against opponents the gangs were preventing fuel and aid supplies into Haiti.
This has seen a near famine level of hunger on the streets and a cholera outbreak.
But the blockade has been broken in Haiti with sources confirming a gun battle at the port to free it.
GOAL is working in the city and they believe that rather than stability on the streets the violence in Haiti has moved into a new phase – one of consolidation for the various warring gangs which, they said, control 80% of Port-au-Prince.
Food insecurity
According to GOAL figures more than 4.9 million Haitians, or nearly half the population, are facing crisis levels of food insecurity.
Since October, nearly 40,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported across the country. Haiti had been cholera-free for three years after a 2010-2019 epidemic infected some 820,000 people and killed nearly 10,000.
While the large scale atrocities in September and October are now less so violence is still happening in communities where the gangs are establishing their own fiefdoms.
Phil Gelman, Country Director of GOAL in Haiti, leads 55 aid workers in the capital Port-au-Prince.
He spoke to The Journal to give an insight into the volatile atmosphere in the city and how his team are working to help locals to survive.
“I think rather than stabilisation I would say consolidation.
“What’s happened is the gangs used those months of September, October, and November to consolidate their positions and that was really the time where there were a lot of the atrocities going on, at a big scale,” he said.
The city is still dangerous however, with GOAL staying off the streets at night and staying away from potential flashpoints.
The new found easing of wide scale violence to a more localised footing has meant that there is scope for the aid agencies to operate.
The aid is coming in through the port and there has also been much work done by GOAL and other agencies to reach out into neighbourhoods that were cut off from outside assistance.
Community workers
The key to the aid agency’s work, Gelman said, is working with local community groups so that GOAL can get into dangerous areas.
The key to the work is the posture of the aid agency and when asked if there is armed protection for aid workers Gelman said categorically: “That is not something we would ever do – if had to get to that place then we would stop”.
“I would say that our our approach to working in these neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, really is predicated on being able to work with community based organisations.
“I would describe them as simultaneously an instrument for getting work done, as well as a strategy instrument from the point of view of that they are also committed to community development,” he said.
Gelman said that these groups are local Haitians, mostly formed in the late 1990s when the country was still chaotic but with more stable political leadership.
“Many are educated, whether they’re university or have gone fairly far into their high school. Many of them have some technical background,” he added.
The groups, working with GOAL, have expertise in health, water provision and sanitation – there are also people with education.
Gelman said these are very committed locals who want to help their community and get Haiti society back on an even keel – it is working with GOAL that is enabling that strategy.
“They do have a certain degree of traction in the neighborhoods in which they operate and can transmit useful information for helping people to change around hygiene to fight the breakout of cholera,” he added.
It was the arrival of cholera around September and October, at the height of the fighting, that Gelman said “has sent the cup to overflow”.
While much of the reporting has been on societal collapse in Haiti it is these local people who are helping Haitians and while Gelman said that the issues are vast and difficult to solve it is these groups that are providing hope.
The key concept being used by GOAL in Haiti is “cascading” – the concept whereby as problems get solutions they feed into other issues that then see strategies to solve various other issues.
Gelman said one key issue in Haiti is garbage collection – as society collapsed and sanitation teams could not work there was inability to deal with rubbish build up on the streets. The aid agency believes this is a key to preventing the spread of disease.
Aid increase
The UN has just launched an appeal for more than $715 million for Haiti which is double last year’s appeal. That funding received just 50% funding in the end.
There has now been an award of €10 million to GOAL from the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) as well as Irish Aid, Unicef and the European Commission for Humanitarian Assistance (ECHO).
This has given some hope to Gelman and his GOAL team.
There have been stories in recent days of a further ramping up of response from the international community, with the Dominican Republic identifying specific people involved in the unrest. Canada has also strengthened sanctions.
The United States has already imposed sanctions on key gang bosses in Haiti but mooted military intervention last year did not come to fruition.
The aid worker believes that the uncertainty and speculation around what the international community may do next is giving cause for some concern.
Gelman believes that there have been signs of a more concerted effort to limit “the operating space” of the gangs but critical to saving Haiti is the need for great co-ordination by the international community.
“We need to see a greater stepping up of the rigour and robustness of co-ordination – we are seeing a group of local actors coming together here now but there does need an A-team to be here to make this really work,” he explained.
For its part the Irish Government has disbursed over €2.7m in development and humanitarian funding to Haiti. This came in addition to over €30m of bilateral humanitarian and longer-term funding disbursed to organisations working in Haiti over the previous decade.
In the two years the State had a presence on the UN Security Council it liaised with Goal, and other agencies to raise issues around food security and health access in Haiti.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: “Our support to, and advocacy on, these issues will continue in the post-Security Council phase – including in key multilateral fora such as the Human Rights Council, where we recently supported a key Resolution on Haiti authorising the appointment of an independent human rights expert on Haiti.”
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