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Port-au-Prince is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is defined by the IHSI as including the communes of Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Cite Soleil, Tabarre, Carrefour, and Pétion-Ville.
Cité Soleil is an extremely impoverished and densely populated commune located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti. Cité Soleil originally developed as a shanty town and grew to an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 residents, the majority of whom live in extreme poverty. The area is generally regarded as one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the Western Hemisphere and it is one of the biggest slums in the Northern Hemisphere. The area has virtually no sewers and has a poorly maintained open canal system that serves as its sewage system, few formal businesses but many local commercial activities and enterprises, sporadic but largely unpaid for electricity, a few hospitals, and two government schools, Lycée Nationale de Cité Soleil, and École Nationale de Cité Soleil. For several years until 2007, the area was ruled by a number of gangs, each controlling their own sectors. But government control was reestablished after a series of operations in early 2007 by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) with the participation of the local population.
Delmas is a commune in the Port-au-Prince Arrondissement, in the Ouest department of Haiti. Delmas itself is an urban continuation of the capital city. Delmas is also the location of much of the area's commercial and industrial enterprise.
On 13 November 2018, a massacre began within the La Saline slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. According to reports, at least 71 civilians were killed over a 24-hour period. It is alleged that the killings were either due to local gang wars or the actions of Haitian officials attempting to quell anti-corruption protests.
Protests began in cities throughout Haiti on 7 July 2018 in response to increased fuel prices. Over time, these protests evolved into demands for the resignation of Jovenel Moïse, the then-president of Haiti. Led by opposition politician Jean-Charles Moïse, protesters stated that their goals were to create a transitional government, provide social programs, and prosecute allegedly corrupt officials. From 2019 to 2021, there were massive protests calling for the Jovenel Moïse government to resign. Moïse had come in first in the 2016 presidential election, for which voter turnout was 21%. The 2015 elections had been annulled due to fraud. On 7 February 2021, supporters of the opposition allegedly attempted a coup d'état, leading to 23 arrests, as well as clashes between protestors and police.
Events in the year 2021 in Haiti.
Ariel Henry is a Haitian neurosurgeon and politician who served as the acting prime minister of Haiti and the acting president of Haiti from 20 July 2021, after the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse, until his formal resignation on 24 April 2024. He had also served as the acting Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities from 14 November 2022 until his formal resignation on 24 April 2024. He became involved in a controversy due to his refusal to cooperate with the authorities over his links with Joseph-Félix Badio, one of the suspects accused of orchestrating the assassination of Jovenel Moïse on 7 July 2021. Officers who investigated the case suspected Henry was involved with planning the assassination.
Jimmy Chérizier, nicknamed Barbecue, is a Haitian gang leader, former police officer, and warlord who is the head of the Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies, abbreviated as "G9" or "FRG9", a federation of over a dozen Haitian gangs based in Port-au-Prince. Known for often making public appearances in military camouflage and a beret, he calls himself the leader of an "armed revolution". He had close connections with the Haitian Tèt Kale Party and was closely allied with former Haitian president Jovenel Moïse until his assassination in 2021. Considered the most powerful gang leader and war criminal in Haiti, he is also currently believed to be one of the country's most powerful figures. He is believed to be responsible for numerous large-scale massacres against civilians in the Port-au-Prince area.
On 14 December 2021, a fuel tank truck exploded in the Samari neighborhood of Cap-Haïtien, the capital city of the Haitian department of Nord. At least 90 people were killed and more than 120 were injured; many people were injured as a result of rushing towards the tanker, likely to collect some of its cargo, before the explosion occurred. Many inhabitants were suffering from financial crisis.
Events in the year 2022 in Haiti.
The socioeconomic and political crisis in Haiti has been marked by rising energy prices due to the 2022 global energy crisis, as well as protests, and civil unrest against the government of Haiti, armed gang violence, an outbreak of cholera, shortages of fuel and clean drinking water, as well as widespread acute hunger. It is a continuation of instability and protests that began in 2018.
Since 2020, Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, has been the site of an ongoing gang war between two major criminal groups and their allies: the Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies and the G-Pep. The Government of Haiti and Haitian security forces have struggled to maintain their control of Port-au-Prince amid this conflict, with gangs reportedly controlling up to 90% of the city by 2023. In response to the escalating gang fighting, an armed vigilante movement, known as bwa kale, also emerged, with the purpose of fighting the gangs. On 2 October 2023, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2699 was approved, authorizing a Kenya-led "multinational security support mission" to Haiti.
Events in the year 2023 in Haiti. Haiti still had no president, no parliamentary quorum, and a dysfunctional high court due to a lack of judges, with another news report of violent uprisings across the country, realizing they were sent by the gangs while the other families and neighbors escape from a burning capital Port-au-Prince. The government invoked a martial law across Haiti in an effort to contain gang violence. The police and the military are forced to withdraw from their posts when their bases and police stations throughout Haiti are destroyed by more gangs who had also planted weapons in the area to provoke participation. Haiti is effectively destroyed by violence that no longer controls the island country after its long history of natural disasters and political chaos, more than three million Haitian migrants sailed to Florida in the U.S. as refugees, and black civilians in Haiti are rallying to fight back against gang corruption.
Between November 29 and 30, 2022, 20 people were killed by armed gangs in the town of Cabaret, a suburb of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
The Bel Air massacre was a series of shootings, extrajudicial killings, and massacres that took place in the Bel Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti between August 2020 and May 2021. Between August and October 2020, G9 An Fanmi e Alye members attacked Bel Air residents, with continued attacks by the affiliated Krache Dife gang. The massacres died down until March 31, whenever renewed attacks began, sparking battles with Bel Air residents who defended themselves.
Events in the year 2024 in Haiti.
Between January 10 and 26, 2023, eighteen police officers were killed by Gan Grif, a gang operating in Port-au-Prince. The killings sparked riots in Port-au-Prince by Haitian police officers and police-affiliated gang Fantom 509, along with international condemnation.
In March 2024, armed gangs stormed the two largest prisons in Haiti, resulting in more than 4,700 inmates escaping. The gangs demanded that prime minister Ariel Henry resign. The Haitian government declared a 72-hour state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in Ouest Department in an attempt to curb the violence and chaos. On 12 March 2024, Henry indicated his intention to resign as prime minister in response to the deteriorating security situation.
The Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies is a federation of 12 gangs led by former Haitian police officer Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier, notorious for extrajudicial massacres. The G9, along with other affiliated gangs, controls over 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince.
The Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) is a collegial head of state constituted on 12 April 2024 and sworn in on 25 April to exercise the powers and duties of President of Haiti either until an elected president is inaugurated or until 7 February 2026, whichever comes first. Prior to Ariel Henry's resignation on 24 April as the inauguration of the TPC, Michel Patrick Boisvert was named interim prime minister by the Council of Ministers.
References
- 1 2 "'Incredible cruelty': gang battles leave 150 dead in Haitian capital". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
- ↑ Charles, Jacqueline (July 13, 2022). "Gang continues deadly attack on Haiti slum, sparking violent protests over fuel shortages". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
- 1 2 3 "Haiti Gang Violence Leaves More Than 50 Dead, Mayor Says". The Voice of America. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
- ↑ "Jimmy Chérizier, alias 'Barbecue'". InSight Crime. 2021-08-19. Archived from the original on 2022-07-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ↑ "Dozens dead, injured in Haiti's capital in gang clashes". AP NEWS. 2022-07-12. Archived from the original on 2022-07-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ↑ "Haiti: UN agencies warn of 'unabated' rise in hunger". UN News. 2022-03-22. Archived from the original on 2022-07-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ↑ Charles, Jacqueline (July 13, 2022). "Gang continues deadly attack on Haiti slum, sparking violent protests over fuel shortages". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
- ↑ Presse, AFP-Agence France. "Nearly 90 Dead In Haiti Gang Violence, As Country Slides Into Chaos". www.barrons.com. Archived from the original on 2022-07-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- 1 2 "Thousands trapped as gangs battle for control in Port-au-Prince". www.aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-14.