Caribbean leaders to gather in Jamaica tomorrow for emergency meeting on Haiti

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has emphasised the seriousness of the situation in Haiti, noting the number of heads of government expected to participate in tomorrow’s high-level meeting in Jamaica on the crisis in the French-speaking nation.

The meeting is the latest in a series of facilitation efforts by CARICOM to advance political dialogue and consensus on Haiti.

While asserting Jamaica’s urgent and deepening concern about the daily deterioration in Haiti’s security circumstances and its implications, Holness advised that the seriousness of the situation would be signalled by the participation of CARICOM heads of government from The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as the eight international partner countries and the United Nations.

The Associated Press is reporting that the CARICOM heads have invited the United States, France, Canada and Brazil to the meeting.

“Jamaica’s hosting of the meeting falls within the context of its ongoing key role in CARICOM’s response to the situation in Haiti, including the community’s contribution to, and advocacy for, greater international support for the United Nations Security Council-sanctioned Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission to Haiti,” Holness said in a media release yesterday.

It is unclear whether Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry will be at the meeting.

Henry had travelled to Kenya to push for the UN-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country to fight gangs in Haiti. A Kenyan court had ruled in January that such a deployment would be unconstitutional.

Henry, who is facing calls to resign or form a transitional council, remains locked out of his country, as gangs, led by Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier, have taken control of the ports of entry.

He arrived in Puerto Rico on Tuesday after he was unable to land in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti. The Dominican Republic government said he lacked a required flight plan as they closed their country’s airspace with Haiti.

COUNTRY PARALYSED

Meanwhile, on Saturday, police and palace guards worked to retake some streets in Haiti’s capital after gangs launched massive attacks on at least three police stations.

Guards from the National Palace, accompanied by an armoured truck, tried to set up a security perimeter around one of the three downtown stations, after police fought off an attack by gangs late Friday.

Sporadic gunfire continued yesterday, and one woman was seen writhing in pain on the sidewalk in downtown Port-au-Prince, with a gunshot wound after a stray bullet hit her in the leg.

The unrelenting gang attacks have paralysed the country for more than a week and left it with dwindling supplies of basic goods. Haitian officials extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew on Thursday, as gangs continued to attack key state institutions.

Members of the CARICOM regional trade bloc have been trying for months to get political actors in Haiti to agree to form an umbrella transitional unity government.

But average Haitians, many of whom have been forced from their homes by the bloody street fighting, can’t wait. The problem for police in securing government buildings is that many Haitians have streamed into them, seeking refuge.

“We are the ones who pay taxes, and we need to have shelter,” said one woman, who did not give her name, for safety reasons.

Another Port-au-Prince resident, who also did not give his name, described the massive attacks Friday.

“They (the gangs) came with big guns. We have no guns and we cannot defend ourselves. All of us, the children are suffering,” said the man.

EFFORTS UNSUCCESSFUL

So far, efforts to broker a solution have been unsuccessful. CARICOM said in a statement late Friday that “the situation on the ground remains dire”.

The CARICOM statement said that while regional leaders remain deeply engaged in trying to bring opposition parties and civil society groups in Haiti together to form a unity government, “the stakeholders are not yet where they need to be”.

“We are acutely aware of the urgent need for consensus to be reached,” read the statement. “We have impressed on the respective parties that time is not on their side in agreeing to the way forward. From our reports, the situation on the ground remains dire and is of serious concern to us.”

It continued, “It is vital that this engagement be at as high a level as possible to send a clear message of unity between CARICOM and the international community as we work together to provide the critical support to the Haitian people at this time of crisis for them.”

In February, an embattled Prime Minister Henry agreed to hold general elections by mid-2025, and the international community has tried to find some foreign armed force willing to fight gang violence there.

CARICOM has also pushed Henry to announce a power-sharing, consensus government in the meantime, but the prime minister has yet to do so, even as Haitian opposition parties and civil society groups are demanding his resignation.

Henry, a neurosurgeon, was appointed as prime minister after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.