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A spike in violence has deepened hunger and poverty in Haiti while hindering the very aid
organizations combating those problems in a country whose government struggles
to provide basic services. Few
relief workers are willing to speak on the record about the cuts, perhaps
worried about drawing attention following the October kidnapping of 17 people
from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, including one Canadian — 12 of whom
remain held hostage. But several confirmed, without giving details, that
they had sent some staff out of the country and have been forced to temporarily
cut back aid operations.
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Read
more: Gang-related
kidnappings and shootings have prevented aid groups from visiting parts of the
capital, Port-au-Prince, and beyond where they had previously distributed food,
water and other basic goods. Story
continues below advertisement A severe
shortage of fuel also has kept agencies from operating at full capacity. “It’s
just getting worse in every way possible,” said Margarett Lubin, Haiti director
for CORE, a U.S. nonprofit organization. “You
see the situation deteriorating day after day, impacting life at every level,”
Lubin said, adding that aid organizations have gone into “survival mode.” Few
places in the world are so dependent on aid groups as Haiti, a nation
frequently called “the republic of NGOs.” Billions of dollars in aid have been
poured through hundreds (by some estimates several thousand) of aid groups even
as the government has grown steadily weaker and less effective. Pleas to
support Haiti as fuel shortage exacerbates crisis
Pleas to support Haiti as fuel shortage exacerbates crisis – Nov
13, 2021 Shortly
after the July 7 assassination of the president, Prime Minister Ariel Henry
assumed leadership of a country still trying to regain political stability.
Nearly all the seats in parliament are vacant and there’s no firm date yet for
long-delayed elections, though Henry said he expects them early next year. Story
continues below advertisement Less
than a dozen elected officials are currently representing a country of more
than 11 million people. And in
the streets, the gangs hold power. More
than 460 kidnappings have been reported by Haiti’s National Police so far this
year, more than double what was reported last year, according to the United
Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. The
agency said Haitians are “living in hell under the yoke of armed gangs. Rapes,
murders, thefts, armed attacks, kidnappings continue to be committed daily, on
populations often left to fend for themselves in disadvantaged and marginalized
neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince and beyond.” Read
more: The
agency added: “Without being able to access these areas under the control of
gangs, we are far from knowing and measuring the extent of these abuses and
what Haitians really experience on a daily basis… |
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