Every time Nixon Bomba walked out of his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he expected to be shot. “I know a lot of people, a lot of people who have died or been admitted to the hospital because they’ve been hit by the virus. lost bullet [stray bullet],” He said I.
The social justice activist said the risk of being accidentally shot in the crossfire or abducted by gangs that now control 80% of the city means being in a public space, supermarket, bank, bar or restaurant – anywhere other than at home. Places – are dangerous. “We never know what’s going to happen at any time,” he said.
He said the attack on the country’s central bank and Monday’s attack on the city’s exclusive Pétionville neighborhood, which reportedly left at least 12 bodies on the street, had created “another level of fear” among residents.
He said Pétionville was an “unexpected” area hit by gangs. Since last year, residents have moved there from downtown Port-au-Prince because it is considered safer.
Mr Bomba, who works from his home in the Turgo area of the capital, said the area had not been attacked recently and would only leave briefly when absolutely necessary. A citywide curfew is in effect from 7pm to 6am. He has access to electricity through solar panels, but criminal gangs have plunged parts of the country into darkness after they attacked four cities this week. substation.
The gang violence that prompted Haiti’s government to declare a state of emergency earlier this month shows few signs of abating. Criminal gangs attacked police stations and two of Haiti’s largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 prisoners and killing dozens.
The country’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned on Monday after armed gangs blocked his flight from landing at the main international airport, which remains closed. Henry is traveling to Kenya to try to ensure a U.N.-backed multinational security mission can target some 200 criminal gangs in the country.
The United Nations on Thursday called on the international community to redouble efforts to provide humanitarian aid and quickly deploy the delayed Kenyan police force.
Violence has escalated since the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. According to the United Nations, more than 8,400 people in Haiti were victims of gang violence in 2023, including killings and kidnappings.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.More than half of the population lives in Less than 133 gourdes (79 pence) per day.
Some families rely on gasoline generators, but living and fuel costs have risen sharply. “Before the president’s assassination, five liters of petrol cost 200 gourdes (£1.19), now you only pay 1,000 to 1,500 gourdes (£5.94 to £8.90),” Mr Boumba said.
While Mr. Boumba has no plans to leave the city where he grew up, his eight-year-old son and his mother currently live in the United States.
While the two were away for the summer, a gang led by the FBI’s most wanted man, Vitel’Homme Innocent, broke in and took over the property and other items surrounding it.
“I miss him all the time and he misses me,” he said. “When I was a kid, I used to go to various places in the metropolitan area to visit my friends. It’s hard to recognize those places now.”
In Léogaine, west of Port-au-Prince, health services are working to support thousands of displaced Haitians. The United Nations estimates that 362,000 people have fled their homes, half of them children, and warned this week that the country was on the brink of a hunger crisis. It is common for more than 10 people to be crammed into a one or two-bedroom apartment, with some sleeping on the roof due to lack of space.
Mauriciana Michelle, the mother of five-month-old Irvington, took her severely underweight son to a clinic just in time. Her family of six fled from the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, taking little with them except the clothes they were wearing.
“This is an emergency,” said Dr. Anany Prosper, the center’s in-country director. Child Nutrition Program (CNP) Haitian. Irvington weighed just 5.5 pounds, just one-third of a healthy weight for his age. “The mother was not healthy enough to breastfeed her baby – she was malnourished,” Dr Prosper said, adding that about one in 10 babies they currently see are in urgent need of help.
The CNP provided life-saving treatment to the baby in the hospital for two weeks and continued to support the family after the baby was discharged. The agency’s Dr. Edmond Miguel-Ange said about 60% of Haitian health care workers have fled the country and hospitals are largely “dysfunctional.”
Dr Prosper added that gang attacks on ports have hampered the import of medicines into the island nation, while gang-controlled roadblocks have hampered the delivery of clean water. “The blood transfusion service is not working – we are just doing the basics at the moment, trying to save children from infection, dysentery or pneumonia,” he said.
“The situation is a tragedy.”
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