The daily struggle of living in Haiti: amid gangs, hunger, and a cholera outbreak

By Fatima Romero

According to international alerts, the resurgence of the cholera outbreak comes to a country mired in one of the worst socio-political crises in its history, amid instability and rampant gang violence that are compounding severe levels of food insecurity and hunger.

Since its detection in October 2022, after three years without diagnosing positive cases, Haiti has recorded around 665 deaths from cholera and more than 36,200 people suspected of carrying the disease, according to the Ministry of Health.

The 2010-2019 epidemic infected 820,000 people and killed nearly 10,000, official reports say.

Haiti was, after the United States of America, the first country in the Americas to declare its independence with a revolution of slaves and mulattoes who, in 1804, defeated Napoleon’s armies.

Still, in the last century, the nation became the poorest in the region.

The dire situation in this country of 11.4 million people results from economic recessions, political stagnation, and unprecedented levels of gang violence.

The critical situation became even more acute after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.

Several neighborhoods in the capital, Port-au-Prince, have become a war zone, making transporting goods and providing services difficult.

Urban violence and insecurity have displaced 155,000 people within Haiti, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reported.

Another 1.7 million have left the country.

For millions of Haitians, life is a daily struggle because of the harassment of violence.

In the first quarter of the year, 389 kidnappings were recorded, said the Center for Analysis and Research on Human Rights (Cardh) in a report dated April 4, 2023.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that from last January through March 15, 2023, 531 people were killed and 300 injured in gang-related incidents, mainly in the capital.

The report revealed that most victims were killed or injured by snipers who allegedly fired randomly at people in their homes or on the street.

Armed gangs control 80% of the national territory, said Ulrika Richardson, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Haiti (OCHA).

“Haitians are putting their lives at risk just by trying to go to work, feed their families or take their children to school,” Richardson said in an April 14 statement.

She urged the international community to raise US$720 million to help 3 million citizens of the Caribbean country or 60% of the 5.2 million Haitians in need of humanitarian assistance.

This funding appeal for 2023 is the largest for the country since the devastating 2010 earthquake and more than double the amount requested last year, OCHA estimated.

FOOD INSECURITY

More than 4.9 million Haitians, or nearly half the population, face crisis levels of food insecurity, UN reports show.

With information from Bloomberg