Haiti

Caribbean leaders attending an annual trade bloc meeting say they will not send a force to Haiti to help stop worsening gang violence in that country. The spiraling violence in Haiti has been a key topic at the 15-member CARICOM meeting in the Bahamas with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry asking for an international military intervention to stop the gang attacks in his country.

Top officials from Canada, the U.S. and Haiti met Wednesday behind closed doors to talk about the spiraling chaos in Haiti, a topic expected to dominate an annual Caribbean trade bloc meeting that opened in the Bahamas.

Extreme violence and gross human rights abuses, including mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks, have sharply increased in Cité Soleil on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, said a UN report published on Friday.

The Canadian government said on Sunday it deployed a military aircraft over Haiti to address what it called a "dire security situation" and to support efforts to disrupt the activities of Haitian gangs.

[…] In early October, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres backed a request from the Haitian government to send an international specialized armed force to the Caribbean Island nation to address spiraling insecurity and a deepening humanitarian crisis. Hopes that the United States or Canada might lead the force have not materialized, although both countries have sent equipment to assist the Haitian National Police.

Haiti’s protracted political and humanitarian crisis – marked by spiking levels of gang-related violence and a badly struggling national police force – are reversing crucial security and development strides made since the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, the senior UN representative in Port-au-Prince told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

[…] “In the 18 months since the assassination of President Moïse, the urgent need for decisive steps to restore democratic functioning and respect for human rights and the rule of law has never been more pressing.”

Haiti awoke Tuesday stripped of its last democratically elected institution — this time, its Senate — an alarming development that solidifies what some call a de facto dictatorship nominally in charge of a country wracked by gang violence.

Criminal gangs are wreaking havoc in Haiti, nudging public opinion toward accepting the idea of an international force that would help restore security. Outside powers should prepare a mission only with solid backing from the country’s politicians, including their pledges to form a transitional government.

Amid continuing gang warfare and a vacuum of law and order, Haiti is “on the verge of an abyss” said the UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday, warning that any hope of a sustainable recovery requires “urgent and sustained action” to tackle the root causes of the overlapping crises afflicting the island nation.