Washington DC, US
Reuters
The United States on Wednesday said it will boost support for the Haitian police as they battle armed gangs and will speed up delivery of aid to a country suffering from crippling shortages of basic goods due to a gang blockade of a key fuel terminal.
Haitian gangs have for a month prevented the distribution of diesel and gasoline, crippling businesses and hospitals and creating shortages of basic goods including water just as the country is struggling with a new outbreak of cholera.
People run while police fire tear gas during a protest demanding the resignation of Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry after weeks of shortages, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 10th October. PICTURE: Reuters/Ralph Tedy Erol.
The State Department has created a new visa restriction policy targeting those who support the gangs and has sent a Coast Guard vessel to patrol Haitian waters.
US officials who briefed reporters on Washington’s response stopped short of offering to send troops to the island nation despite appeals from the Haitian government for an international armed force.
“We are working to increase and deploy in the coming days security assistance to the Haitian National Police to strengthen their capacity to counter gangs and re-establish a stable security environment,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“We will accelerate the delivery of additional humanitarian relief to the people of Haiti.”
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols on Wednesday traveled to Port-au-Prince with a delegation that includes Lieutenant General Andrew Croft of the US Southern Command, the State Department said.
During an earlier phone briefing with reporters, a senior Biden administration official said it was “premature to talk about just a US security presence” when asked whether Washington had ruled out sending troops.
Sporadic looting and gun battles between gangs and police have become increasingly common in recent weeks as the shortages have led to mounting desperation. Protests to demand interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation have at times devolved into looting.
The Pan American Health Organization on Wednesday said civil unrest is making it harder to contain the outbreak of cholera, adding that 18 deaths have been confirmed as of 9th October and hundreds of potential cases are being studied.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed that one or several countries send “a rapid action force” to help Haiti’s police, according to a letter to the UN Security Council, without suggesting that the force be deployed by the United Nations.
Another Biden administration official during the phone briefing said the travel bans were meant to hold accountable those who are linked to the gangs.
“Our intent in doing so is to demonstrate that there are consequences for those who fund and foment violence in Haiti,” the official said.
A man pushes a barrel with empty water containers during a nationwide strike against rising fuel prices, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 26th September, 2022. PICTURE: Reuters/Ralph Tedy Erol
Meanwhile, Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday that civil unrest was making it harder to contain a new outbreak of cholera in Haiti just as other diseases threaten to ignite new health crises.
The Caribbean nation had confirmed 18 deaths from cholera as of 9th October, with hundreds of potential cases being studied, PAHO said, after authorities announced the disease’s surprise return earlier this month.
“The ongoing civil unrest and precarious security situation in the country hinder efforts to contain and control this outbreak,” said PAHO Director Dr Carissa F Etienne, adding that “these same situations also continue to impact other health priorities,” including maternal health, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis and routine vaccinations.
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Just 41 per cent of Haitian children are vaccinated against measles and 51 per cent are fully vaccinated against polio, Etienne told journalists.
“This is well way below recommended levels, leaving Haiti at high risks of further outbreaks,” Etienne said.
PAHO considers Haiti one of four countries in the Americas at “very high risk” of polio transmission, along with neighboring Dominican Republic, as well as Brazil and Peru.
Thirty-two cases of cholera had been confirmed as of 9th October, with over 260 suspected cases still awaiting confirmation in the area surrounding Port-au-Prince, Etienne said, adding that nearly one quarter of these cases are among children between ages one and four.
PAHO sees the risk from the cholera outbreak as “moderate” for the rest of the Americas and “minimum” at a global level, with the greatest risk facing other departments in Haiti not-yet-affected, as well as the Dominican Republic, PAHO official Dr Sylvain Aldighieri said.
Haiti previously suffered an outbreak of cholera in 2010 when United Nations peacekeepers dumped infected sewage in a river, leading officials to apologise for the spread that killed thousands.
