The Tribune

THE grim reality of life in Haiti is that it is a broken nation.

Haiti’s chargé d’affaires in The Bahamas, Louis Harold Joseph, paints a clear picture of the situation in today’s Tribune.

He talks of how the nation has reached an unemployment rate of 60 percent. He talks of the assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse, in July last year.

He said: “Since then, Haiti has seen an increase in crime in the country that is both social and political. But I would say largely social, because a 60 percent unemployment rate would cause serious social problems in any country.

“Since last August, the situation has worsened. Gangsters have blocked access to the oil terminals. This blockage has catastrophic consequences on the functioning of hospitals that are forced to close their doors, on the availability of drinking water, on schools that are unable to accommodate students, on road transport and on the supply of food to cities.”

Regular readers of The Tribune will have seen some of the frequent international reports we have published, detailing the ways in which gangs have seized control of entire neighbourhoods, gaining control of transport routes and limiting who can and cannot get in or out.

The assassination of the country’s president is emblematic of the chaos in the country, with Jovenel Moïse shot dead in his home and a host of accusations made as to who was behind the killing.

So what is to be done?

At long last, the international community is meeting with serious deliberation on what will be the next step.

Such intervention might not be welcomed. When UN peacekeepers went to Haiti to deal with the aftermath of an earthquake, they were to blame for infected sewage bringing cholera to the nation. Haiti had been cholera-free until October 2010. More than 10,000 have died of the disease since then.

Memories are long when it comes to that incident, and recompense has been slow in coming for the nation.

Should any troops enter the nation, there will be questions of who they are dealing with. The political instability is rife in the nation, with gangs seizing the opportunity to fill the void in coherent leadership. One man, Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed “Barbeque”, has risen to be the leader of the “G9 Family and Allies” alliance of gangs. The G9 group is blocking fuel movement from the Varreux fuel terminal, the largest in Haiti.

Cherizier himself has called on the government to grant him and G9 members amnesty, saying that as the country is worsening by the day “there is no better time than today to dismantle the system”.

He has put forward his own plan for restoring order – an interim president alongside one representative from each of Haiti’s ten departments to govern until an election can be held in February 2024.

He said: “The country is (facing) one crisis after another. During all these crises, the first victim is the population, the people in the ghettos, the peasants.”

Meanwhile, Haiti’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, has called for “the immediate deployment of a specialised armed force” to stop armed gangs. Last month, he eliminated fuel subsidies in the country, causing prices to double.

Who is in charge? Who should be in charge? What is the path to elections? All of these are questions facing any group that intervenes in an effort to bring stability.

Some of those troops could be Bahamian. The government has rightly said our troops are ready, willing and able to deploy if needed. So they should be – they should be prepared to act if needed.

Will they be needed? That is the question facing our leaders, and the international community.

There needs to be careful consideration of what the plan would be if intervention takes place. What is the goal? What is the exit strategy once that goal is achieved? How should the composition of any force be decided?

With the majority of Haitians out of work, the nation is on the brink of collapse. That would be horrific for Haitians themselves, but it is also in our country’s self-interest for Haiti to be stable. We already experience high levels of migration from Haiti – that would only grow if the nation’s situation worsens.

We sometimes talk about the community of nations – and if such a community exists, then it must be ready to help those nations in need.

Haiti is in need. The question is not whether something should be done, but what is the best thing to do.

We hope careful thought is given to the next step.