Port-au-Prince is dying
For more than a week, the situation that was unbearable has become increasingly catastrophic for the inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince.
Kidnapping, shootings, serial killings, rapes, blocking of the streets… this is the daily lot of the population.
And all this under the greatest silence of the government authorities.
Not a day goes by without a kidnapping alert. Schoolchildren, students, small businessmen, government officials, private sector workers, high-ranking police officers, ordinary citizens… no one is safe from kidnappers.
“Today, the capital of Haiti is 100% controlled by armed gangs,” said Marie Rosy Auguste Ducéna, of RNDDH, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, in remarks reported by Radio France Internationale on Monday. The media underlines that in 48 hours, at least 80 kidnappings have been recorded throughout the city, including in the richest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince and in broad daylight. Among the victims is the Inspector General of the Haitian National Police, who was kidnapped on Friday with his daughter as he accompanied her to school.
Invited to several media outlets to report on the increasing violence in the capital, the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, Pierre Esperance, revealed that the gang war for control of territories in Port-au-Prince has already left at least 60 people dead and dozens missing as of March 4.
In downtown Port-au-Prince, in other neighborhoods such as Nazon, Solino, Bas Delmas, and Christ-Roi, citizens are forced to leave their homes to face the fury of the gangs, who use gunfire day and night.
In the heights of Port-au-Prince, notably in Fort-Jaques, Fermathe, Thomassin, and Laboule, acts of kidnapping and homicides are increasing.
Less than a week ago, the sub-precinct of Fort-Jacques was burned by bandits.
On the Cul-de-Sac plain, especially in Bon-Repos, the situation is dismal. Armed men are as if they were in their seats. They kill, kidnap, rape women and girls in complete peace.
This Monday, several educational institutions in Port-au-Prince have asked parents to keep their children at home because of the increase in kidnapping and projectile attacks, particularly in the downtown area.
While calls for help are multiplying, the authorities are silent as if everything is under control. The international community multiplies its missions and meetings. And the people are dying.
Like many citizens trapped by the thugs, the CEO of the cell phone company Digicel, the businessman Marten Boute launches this SOS:
The situation is becoming more and more desperate in Port-au-Prince. Armed gangs are now roaming freely throughout the capital. We are receiving reports of kidnappings every few hours. More schools have announced closures this morning. No one is safe. Desperation is setting in,” he wrote on Twitter.
With this plea for help: “We need help!