Category Archives: Haiti

Macron announces joint commission with Haiti amid calls for reparations

Posted on by

France imposed harsh ‘ransom’ after revolution that campaigners say stunted Caribbean country’s development

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has announced a joint commission with Haiti to examine the countries’ shared past as Haitian campaigners demand a reimbursement of billions of dollars worth of “ransom” paid to France.

Macron announced his intention to create the commission as campaigners renewed calls for reparations on the bicentenary of an agreement to pay 150m francs to France in 1825 to compensate slave-owning colonists after the Haitian Revolution.

Continue reading...

Trump revokes legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans

Posted on by

Move takes effect on 24 April as president weighs also stripping parole status from some 240,000 Ukrainians in US

Donald Trump’s administration will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, in the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration.

It will be effective on 24 April.

Continue reading...

More than a million Haitians forced from their homes amid gang violence

Posted on by

UN agency says more than half of the displaced people are children, as gang attacks see upswing in Port-au-Prince

More than 1 million people have been forced from their homes in Haiti amid a sharp upswing in gang attacks in the country’s embattled capital, Port-au-Prince, the UN has said.

The UN’s migration agency, the IOM, said that never before had such a large number of Haitians been reported to have been displaced by violence. More than half of those internally displaced people (IDPs) were children who were bearing the brunt of Haiti’s security breakdown. Many had been displaced repeatedly.

Continue reading...

Death toll of Haiti gang violence rose to 5,600 in 2024, UN says

Posted on by

UN Human Rights Office adds that 2,200 were injured and nearly 1,500 kidnapped as international mission struggles

More than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year, the UN has said, as an international mission led by Kenya struggles to contain rampant gang violence.

The number of killings increased by more than 20% compared with 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office. More than 2,200 people were reported injured and nearly 1,500 kidnapped, it said.

Continue reading...

Two reporters and a police officer killed in shooting at Haiti hospital reopening

Posted on by

Gunmen target press conference at Haiti’s largest public hospital after street gangs forced its closure earlier this year

Two reporters and a police officer were killed and others injured on Tuesday when armed men opened fire on a group of journalists who gathered for a government press conference scheduled to announce the reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital.

Street gangs forced the closure of the State University of Haiti hospital early this year and authorities had pledged to reopen the facility in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Christmas Eve. But as journalists gathered to cover the event, the gunmen opened fire.

Continue reading...

Haiti summons French ambassador after Macron called its leaders ‘morons’

Posted on by

Government protests ‘unfriendly and inappropriate’ comments by French president caught on camera

Haiti’s government has summoned the French ambassador to the country to protest about “unfriendly and inappropriate” comments from Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on camera calling the country’s leaders “morons”.

The French president had on Wednesday described the decision of the Caribbean country’s transitional presidential council to oust the prime minister earlier this month amid an escalation in gang warfare as “completely dumb”.

Continue reading...

MSF aid workers ‘heartbroken’ as charity forced to halt services in Haitian capital after repeated attacks

Posted on by

For the first time in over 30 years Médicins Sans Frontières halts activity leaving 2 million people in Port-au-Prince without vital healthcare

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said its aid workers are “heartbroken” after the medical NGO was forced to suspend all of its healthcare services in Port-au-Prince for the first time in three decades, leaving Haitians in the violence-ravaged capital without a critical lifeline.

The international non-profit said it had no choice but to halt all operations on Wednesday after staff were repeatedly attacked and received death threats from armed vigilantes and the national police.

Continue reading...

At least 28 suspected gang members killed in Port-au-Prince, say Haiti police

Posted on by

Armed groups clash with residents and police after plans for attack on Pétionville area announced on social media

Gangs have launched a fresh attack on Haiti’s capital, targeting an upscale community in Port-au-Prince where people with guns clashed with residents who fought side by side with police.

The attack on Pétionville was led by the Viv Ansanm group, whose leader, former police officer Jimmy Chérizier, had announced the plan in a video posted on social media.

Continue reading...

Stop ‘draconian’ mass deportations of Haitians fleeing gangs, activists say

Posted on by

Tens of thousands deported from Caribbean states, as Dominican Republic pledges to return 10,000 people a week

Activists have called on Caribbean governments to halt the mass deportation of Haitians fleeing escalating gang violence that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

In the past month, tens of thousands of people have been deported to Haiti, including 61,000 from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, whose president recently pledged to deport 10,000 migrants a week.

Continue reading...

Doctors Without Borders ambulance in Haiti ambushed and two patients killed

Posted on by

Medical charity says its staff members were violently attacked by police and vigilantes 100 meters from hospital

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said that at least two of its patients were killed after one of its ambulances was stopped and attacked in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

MSF said its staff members were violently attacked on Monday after “members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers” stopped the ambulance, which was transporting three young people with gunshot wounds.

Continue reading...

US bans Haiti flights for 30 days after Spirit jet hit by hail of gunfire

Posted on by

Move by US authorities comes after plane was shot at on Monday, injuring attendant and forcing airport shutdown

The US Federal Aviation Administration has banned civilian flights into Haiti for 30 days after a jetliner was shot at on approach to Port-au-Prince.

Bullets hit the Spirit Airlines plane when it was about to land on Monday, injuring a flight attendant and forcing the airport to shut down.

Continue reading...

Airlines halt flights to Haiti after plane hit by gunfire

Posted on by

Spirit Airlines flight heading from Florida to Port-au-Prince diverted to Dominican Republic after flight attendant was grazed by bullet, amid broader violence in Haiti’s capital

Haiti’s international airport shut down on Monday after gangs opened fire at a commercial flight landing in Port-Au-Prince, prompting some airlines to suspend operations as the country swore in a new interim prime minister who promised to restore peace.

The Spirit Airlines flight headed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Port-Au-Prince was just hundreds of feet from landing in Haiti’s capital when gangs shot at the plane, striking a flight attendant who suffered minor injuries, according to the airline, the US embassy and flight tracking data.

Continue reading...

Haiti appoints new prime minister as security crisis mounts

Posted on by

Entrepreneur Alix Didier Fils-Aimé replaces Garry Conille as country rocked by worsening gang violence

Haiti’s transitional presidential council has appointed the entrepreneur and former senate candidate Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as the new prime minister, according to the official gazette in the country.

The businessman replaces Garry Conille, who was named prime minister in May. The shake-up is the latest blow to political stability amid soaring levels of gang violence.

Continue reading...

Almost two dozen countries at high risk of acute hunger, UN report reveals

Posted on by

Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, Palestine and Haiti rated at level of highest concern in latest six-monthly analysis

Acute food insecurity is expected to worsen in war-stricken Sudan and nearly two dozen other countries and territories in the next six months, largely as a result of conflict and violence, an analysis by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme has found.

The latest edition of the twice-yearly Hunger Hotspots report, published on Thursday, provides early warnings on food crises and situations around the world where food insecurity is likely to worsen, with a focus on the most severe and deteriorating situations of acute hunger.

Continue reading...

Haitian gangs recruiting starving children to fight security forces, rights group finds

Posted on by

Hundreds of poor and desperate children targeted in anticipation of long and bloody battle, says Human Rights Watch

Haitian armed gangs are recruiting starving children to swell their ranks ahead of an anticipated long and bloody battle with international security forces, a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.

Armed groups – which control most of Haiti – are enticing hundreds, if not thousands, of impoverished children to take up arms with offers of food and shelter, the rights groups said.

Continue reading...

Gang violence leaves Haiti facing ‘worst hunger emergency in the western hemisphere’

Posted on by

Half the country’s population now struggling to find food as lawlessness and inflation cause ‘full-blown crisis’, say aid agencies

Half of all Haitians are struggling every day to find food as rampant gang violence and lawlessness are causing “the worst hunger emergency in the western hemisphere”, a report has found.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner organisations estimate that 5.4 million Haitians are now regularly finding it hard to get enough to eat, a record for the Caribbean nation and the largest proportion of acutely food insecure people anywhere in the world, WFP said. The figure suggests another 600,000 people have fallen into “crisis” level hunger since the previous peaks recorded earlier this year and in 2023.

Continue reading...

Five children a week killed or injured in Haiti’s gang warfare

Posted on by

Analysis of UN data shows rising toll on children who are being caught in the crossfire, as well as recruited to kidnap, loot and murder, say aid groups

Five children have been killed or injured in Haiti for every week of the first six months of 2024, caught in the crossfire of warring gangs.

At least 131 children have been killed or injured so far this year, according to analysis of UN Data by Save the Children – up 47% on the final six months of 2023 when 89 cases were documented.

Continue reading...

UN calls for foreign security forces to be deployed faster to quash Haiti gang wars

Posted on by

Armed gangs control much of Caribbean country’s capital with reports of 40 rape victims a day in areas, UN reports

The UN has called for the deployment of international security forces in Haiti to be accelerated after a report that at least 1,379 people were killed or wounded in gang warfare and 428 people kidnapped in the country between April and June this year.

“Service providers report receiving an average of 40 rape victims a day in some areas of the capital,” warns the new report from the UN’s office in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Continue reading...

Haiti: 40 people killed after migrant boat catches fire at sea

Posted on by

Boat carrying more than 80 people was headed to Turks and Caicos as gang violence pushes Haitians to leave country

At least 40 people have been killed at sea after a boat carrying Haitian migrants caught fire, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Port-au-Prince said on Friday.

The boat, which was carrying more than 80 people, departed from Fort Saint-Michel in Haiti’s north and was headed for the Turks and Caicos Islands, the IOM said in a statement, citing the Caribbean nation’s migration authority.

Continue reading...

Tropical Storm Beryl predicted to turn into first hurricane of season

Posted on by

Storm is forecast to glance off Barbados on Sunday before heading through Caribbean and toward the Yucatán

Tropical Storm Beryl is forecast to become the first hurricane of the season before skirting the southern tip of Barbados in the south-eastern Caribbean on Sunday.

Beryl currently holds maximum sustained winds of 60mph (95km/h) and is traveling west at 21mph (34km/h), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center.

Continue reading...