Haiti, as the lights fade away…

It was a little past midnight when I heard a burst of what sounded like machine gun fire. I was still debating whether it was fireworks or actual gunshots when the sound pierced the air again.

In my neighborhood, sitting on the lower part of the Turgeau hills in Port-au-Prince, the night air carries sounds from miles away. But this one sounded extremely close. Then, it was nonstop gunfire, and my heart felt like it would stop. The moment I had feared for months had finally arrived.

My phone rang at the same time that my WhatsApp messages lit up.  Two of my closest friends who lived nearby were anxiously asking me if I was hearing the gunfire. Both of them could see flames lighting up the night sky. In my position, I couldn’t see the fires.  A third friend and I started counting the gunshots together as we held on tightly to our phones.  He began identifying the different weapons used based on the sound they made.  He lived in the nearby neighborhood of Pacot and heard everything I was hearing. I was scared.

While violent gangs had taken over practically every neighborhood in the capital, my neighborhood had always been spared.  Until now…

As the sun came up, news broke that gangs had entered people’s homes in the area of Débussy across the ravine behind my house, set fire to several houses, and left behind corpses of unarmed civilians who had nothing to defend themselves against that sudden onslaught.  My cook’s son-in-law was among those who lost their lives that night.

This kind of news has become commonplace in Haiti since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, terrifying accounts of gangs entering unsuspecting neighborhoods, pillaging, burning, raping, and killing innocent people, with no hope of Police officers intervening as these killers outgunned the national police.

But something unusual happened in my neighborhood in the hours that followed the carnage across the way. There was a collective resolve not to let our neighborhood fall prey to these bloodthirsty hoodlums as the others had, and the residents, men and women alike, armed themselves with whatever they could find, rocks, machetes, and knives, and waited anxiously for the bandits to make their way through the ravine into our turf.

Aided by a small contingency of Police officers dispatched into the area early that Monday morning, the residents waited as the gang members were flushed out of the ravine by ex-military who lived in the area. Feeling cornered, they would surely climb out of the ravine and onto our streets.  Once they surfaced, these thugs were mercilessly attacked and killed by the residents, their mutilated bodies dragged and burnt a short distance down the street.

This incident in the Turgeau area served as an example of courage and zero tolerance to all and started what would become a widespread vigilante movement called “Bwa Kale” where residents from different areas resolved to also self-defend and protect their neighborhood in the absence of the Police who were overwhelmed by the various gangs striking everywhere around the capital. I watched quietly as my vigilante neighbors took down these bandits.  I couldn’t join them in those horrifying acts born out of pure anger and desperation, but I offered words of understanding and bags of  water to quench their thirst as they emerged from the battlefield. I also offered a silent prayer for their souls so that they might be spared when it came time for them to meet their Maker.

Unbeknownst to us, at around the same time, a minibus carrying around a dozen gang members reportedly en route to bring reinforcement to the ones trapped in our neighborhood was intercepted by the Police in the Canapé-Vert area about a mile away, and the residents of that area snatched them from Police custody, beat them to death and burnt their bodies.  Pictures of that horrendous scene shocked the entire world, but this is what “enough is enough” looks like.  No one else was going to save us and if these armed men had made it into our neighborhood that day, God knows if I would be here writing this blog today.

My ex-husband had called me earlier that morning and had urged me to leave Haiti as soon as possible, as he was afraid that things would not get better.  Terrified as I was, I quickly tried to book a flight out, but there were no seats available on any of the U.S.-based carriers for the rest of the week. It looked like everyone who was able to leave was trying to get the hell out.  I, nevertheless, found a seat on a flight out to the Dominican Republic for Wednesday afternoon and immediately booked it. Two whole days to wait. I counted the hours while heavy weapons went off behind my house.  Sleeping that night was a difficult undertaking.

I got up the next Tuesday morning to a cadaver burning right underneath my balcony. It was another bandit caught and lapidated. I watched in silent horror as his body burned beneath the tires that were doused with gasoline and set ablaze, but did not feel an ounce of pity for him.  I had stopped thinking of these men as people.  People did not carry out these atrocities on other people. Then, I started thinking about the state of my heart and worried that I, too, was losing all sense of humanity.  It was time to leave.

It took quite a maneuver to get out of my neighborhood that Wednesday afternoon as the Police and residents had put up barricades to contain the last of the remaining gang members as they were hunted and killed.  The barricades were partially lifted to let me through mere minutes before it would have been too late to catch my flight.  But as Providence would have it, I, accompanied by two of my neighbors, made it safe and sound to the airport.  The roads along the way were deserted and resembled a ghost town, and I prayed that my good neighbors would make it back home safely.  Minutes later, I boarded the flight to the Dominican Republic, comforted in the knowledge that my mother would soon be leaving for Montreal. The day was Wednesday, April 26, 2023, and I haven’t been home since.

The last blog I wrote on the state of my country, “Haiti: Between Light and Darkness”, is dated April 23, 2023. It was on a Sunday evening. Little did I know then that my neighborhood would be under attack in just a few short hours.

Today, some 200 armed groups’ deadly reach covers more than 80% of the Port-au-Prince area impacting all aspects of daily life. Children cannot go to school, jeopardizing whatever possible future a kid can have in this ravaged country.  Many business operations have ceased, endangering an already weakened economy. Banks are attacked and pillaged.  Hospitals are ransacked and the medical personnel find it increasingly risky to try to make it to work, leaving hundreds of patients uncared for.

Earlier this month, powerful rival gangs reactivated an old alliance, “Viv Ansanm” (“Live together”, in English), in apparent response to Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s signature of a bilateral accord between Haiti and Kenya in the context of a Multinational Security Support Mission which will be led by Kenya with the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan Police officers and was approved by the U.N. Security Council last October to help squash Haiti’s increasing gang violence and come in aid of a population in extreme suffering. Other nations have also promised troop support. However, the Prime Minister’s request to the United Nations to help a nation in danger dates back eighteen months. This was shortly after the Haitian minister of foreign affairs declared at a U.N. assembly that “all was under control” at home.  That statement came as a shock to all of us living in terror in Haiti. Absolutely nothing seemed under control then. And it’s even worse now.

This newly formed brotherhood of gangs attacked key national structures including both the Toussaint Louverture International Airport and the Guy Malary domestic airport causing U.S.-based and local air carriers to cancel their flights to and out of Haiti, effectively shutting down the airport in early March. No word yet on when they will be open for business as the airlines are not yet authorized by their insurance companies to travel to Haiti.

The assault on the international airport was an attempt by G-9, Family & Allies gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, a.k.a. “Barbecue”, a former police officer turned bandit and a self-proclaimed revolutionary, to prevent Prime Minister Henry’s return to Port-au-Prince from Nairobi, demanding that he resign to avoid what he calls an imminent civil war and genocide. These words invoke frightening images of Rwanda. And none of our politicians is a Paul Kagame.

Soon after that, heavily armed gang members attacked the National Penitentiary, Haiti’s largest prison, allowing about 3,700 prisoners to escape, including some notorious criminals and gang leaders and members, further aggravating the capital’s already volatile security environment as these individuals regained their former positions and began terrorizing their old turfs. Over 1,000 prisoners from the Croix-des-Bouquets prison escaped after gangs assaulted that facility hours later. With these attacks, the government, or what’s left of it, if there was ever one, declared a three-day state of emergency in the capital, which was later extended to one month with a curfew to allow the Police to lead recovery operations with minimal collateral damage. People venturing out during curfew hours did so at their own risk and peril.

State structures in the Champ de Mars area by the National Palace were also targeted by gangs, showing just how bold and unafraid they are.  But these buildings were valiantly protected by the National Police. Others, however, have fallen prey to the gangs, like many of the Police stations and substations around the capital; this, to further weaken police action against them. This ruthless onslaught on Police forces has left a large portion of the population to fend for themselves, with communities continuing to come together to mount self-defense strategies, including the gruesome “Bwa kale” method.

With the Haitian capital on the brink of total collapse under gang rule, Prime Minister Henry finally heeded calls from the U.S. Government and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to step down.  The international community, with decades of bad politics toward Haiti, has for the last two years refused to get openly involved in Haiti affairs lest they be blamed for everything that could, and would, go wrong. “This situation requires a Haitian solution” they all chime away.  But many suspect that the international community is pulling strings behind the scenes. To what end is up for debate.  The theories are many.

This so-called Haitian solution, under the guidance of CARICOM, comes in the shape of a transitional presidential council composed of representatives from each of the major political blocs (or accords), civil society, and the private sector. Despite some internal discord, this Council came together relatively quickly which, I admit, is quite surprising given the fact that Haitian politicians have historically been unable to agree on anything.  Hence, the continued chaos with no forward direction. This Council would have as a mission to pave the way for the multinational security support mission and organize free and fair elections to allow a return to peace and normalcy in Haiti.  Free and fair elections.  That’s another loaded subject.  But one thing is for sure, no “free and fair” elections will be possible when people are afraid to leave their homes to cast their precious votes.

Unfortunately (and fortunately for some), the timeline for the mission’s deployment is still uncertain as funding by the United States and the international community seems to be stalling. Nairobi is now also requesting that the new transition government be in place before any of its troops are deployed to Haiti. Though that might be understandable to some, many think that it’s just part of a game the international community is playing with us and doubt that the mission will ever be deployed.  In the meantime, Prime Minister Henry still has not been able to find his way back to Haiti with the neighboring Dominican Republic refusing to allow him to land on their territory and find his way home across the border. To further complicate things, gang leaders have publicly denounced any government structure that would be put in place as part of the CARICOM-led mediation effort and have threatened any sector representative who would participate in that council. This practice of  intimidation is quite effective and has caused at least one representative on the council to resign.

As Haitians wait out the endless delays in the deployment of the security support mission, there is increasing concern over Haiti’s already fragile health system at a time when Cholera is resurging and record numbers of victims of violence are seeking lifesaving care.  According to human watch groups, the month of January was the most violent in two years with over 1,100 people killed, injured, or kidnapped. It is estimated that gang violence in Haiti has displaced over 360,000 people from their neighborhoods and homes as they continue to run for their lives. During the first two weeks of March, 33,000 people have fled the capital to settle with their families in the provinces.  We now pray that the violence does not follow them there, as many towns outside of the Ouest Department have also fallen prey to gang violence.

Many hospitals have had to cease operations due to a lack of critical supplies like oxygen and blood products, and a lack of fuel to keep their generators running. (Yes, the gas shortage continues.)  According to Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian aid organization, providing care to the Haitian population is critical but they have been forced to discontinue services in certain areas as it was becoming too dangerous for their own safety.  They report that at least 50% of hospitals in the capital are currently unable to offer care to patients. Looting of containers at the main seaport carrying critical supplies for neonatal units, and infant and children health care has been reported by UNICEF, further aggravating an already desperate situation. Pharmacies are also reporting being out of stock of lifesaving medicines. The situation is dire.

And, as if the healthcare crisis in Haiti wasn’t bad enough, the country also faces aggravated food insecurity as attacks on the country’s main seaport by armed gangs in March threatened the critical food supply with the recent looting of containers carrying imported food items.  Gangs have, for a long time now, controlled the main roads and blocked access to the capital from different parts of the country, making it impossible for local goods to reach grocery stores across the capital and in some provinces.  According to the World Food Program, Haiti’s food crisis is the worst in the world with 1.4 million Haitians “one step away from famine”.  And because of the ongoing security crisis, many families have remained sheltered in their homes and risk running out of food to sustain themselves. Added to this, are the concerns about an eventual water crisis as technicians from the national water company are unable to access certain sites around the capital because of gang activity.

Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, Brian Nichols, has warned that “there is no worse humanitarian crisis worldwide than the one facing Haiti right now”. On March 10^th, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti evacuated its non-essential personnel in a middle-of-the-night operation and brought in Marines to help secure the Embassy as neighboring businesses and state institutions have been attacked and pillaged by armed gangs. Many other Embassies and Missions like Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, and the European Union Delegation have since then proceeded to evacuate their personnel.

Flights are chartered to pick up foreign nationals scrambling to get out of Haiti before they no longer can. Frequent sightings of helicopters in the skies only grow the desperation of a people who now feel truly abandoned.

As I said before, people like me are lucky enough to have options.  From the Dominican Republic, I made my way to Montreal to visit my mom, then to New York where I am now living with my daughter and my grandson. Every day I receive tragic news from Haiti. I call my neighbors every week or two to appease my soul and guilty conscience (for having left while they continue to fight for all of us) and to find out how they are faring as all hell is breaking loose around them.  The gang whose soldiers were brought down by our neighborhood squad has promised to seek revenge and teach us a lesson for having had the audacity to stand up to them and do them irreparable damage.  As if killing us was an acceptable act. Every day my neighbors wait.  And every day I pray that I never have to mourn them.  But, still, I mourn my country. I mourn all the lives cut short or ruined. I mourn all the dignity lost.  I mourn the innocence lost. I mourn all the dreams lost. I mourn the sad state of affairs of a nation that once broke ranks with slavery and became the first free Black republic in the world.

My wish for Haiti is that, after all of this is over, if ever it is over, the Haitian people will have wised up and are no longer willing to bargain their vote for money, for they have seen first-hand what happens to a nation when the wrong people are elected to public office.

The Haitian flag as it proudly stands. The Blue band represents our African ancestry, and the red band represents the mulatto population, a mixture of the black race with the Europeans who later came. Together the colors represent the union of the country’s races. The coat of arms symbolizes our independence, our breaking the chains of slavery.