Robert Muggah is a co-founder of the Igarapé Institute and the SecDev Group, a senior adviser to the United Nations, and a contributor to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report.
The western hemisphere’s poorest country is sliding into civil war. Heavily armed gangs have besieged Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, emboldened after the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse in July, 2021. The result has been a nightmarish humanitarian catastrophe.
The United Nations reported that a record-breaking 1,100 Haitians were killed, injured or kidnapped in January alone. Homicides more than doubled last year to nearly 4,800, and more than 310,000 civilians, half of them children, were forced to flee or face extortion, kidnapping and sexual violence. Owing to deepening insecurity and skyrocketing food prices, half of Haiti’s population now depends on relief assistance and more than a million children are out of school.
Haiti’s most immediate threat comes from a network of criminal groups, including roughly 200 gangs. Many of them originally formed in the latter half of the 20th century as “self-defence groups” in poorer inner-city neighbourhoods. Over time, their leaders forged alliances with the business and political elite, agreeing to violently sway elections in return for public contracts. Since then, most have diversified into drug trafficking, firearms smuggling and kidnapping. Rival gang families are fighting to defend their turf and control critical infrastructure, including refineries, roads and ports.
Gangs and their backers stand to profit from the collapse of Haiti’s government. Amid escalating violence, anti-government protests have spread to dozens of towns across the country. Opposition parties, gang leaders and protesters are demanding the resignation of de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose mandate officially ran out earlier this month. Despite a 2022 agreement to hold presidential and legislative elections some time in 2023, these were postponed on the grounds that conditions were not safe enough. The country has failed to hold a presidential election since 2016 and all elected offices are now unfilled, intensifying the state’s monumental legitimacy crisis.
The world needs to let Haiti write its own story
The repatriation of Guy Philippe late last year, after serving just seven years of a nine-year sentence in the U.S., could be the spark that sets Haiti alight. A former police officer, Mr. Philippe led the 2004 uprising against former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide that resulted in his controversial resignation and exile. Accused of orchestrating deadly attacks on police stations in 2004 and 2016, Mr. Philippe was arrested in early 2017, just months after being elected to Haiti’s senate. He was then extradited to the U.S., pleading guilty for money laundering and accepting bribes to protect Colombian cocaine shipments from Haiti to Miami.
Mr. Philippe and his supporters appear intent on ousting another Haitian leader, this time Mr. Henry. Among Mr. Philippe’s supporters are a slew of Haiti’s political elite, including former president Michel Martelly and former prime minister Claude Joseph. Since his return, Mr. Philippe has called for civil disobedience and a “revolution” to oust Mr. Henry. He’s also formed an alliance with a shadowy paramilitary group connected to the Ministry of Environment, the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas, whose members include former police officers and soldiers from Haiti’s disbanded armed forces, including many involved in overthrowing Aristide.
Notwithstanding a rash of sanctions, modest aid and appeals for elections, the international community has little appetite to engage in Haiti’s deteriorating security situation. The United Nations authorized a multinational security support mission to be led by Kenya alongside other Caribbean countries, but it has stalled. Despite a pledge of up to US$200-million from Washington to host the mission, Kenya’s high courts have declared it unconstitutional. And while the Kenyan government says it will appeal the decision (or force it through), there are serious doubts about whether a modest force of roughly 3,000 police officers can face down Haiti’s hyperviolent gangs and ensure much needed stability.
Other actions need to be taken to reduce the influence of Haiti’s armed gangs and their political and economic backers. The UN, together with Canada, the European Union and U.S., should continue broadening and enforcing sanctions against Haitian elites who are backing gangs. They can also direct more resources to Haiti’s beleaguered national police, coast guard, customs and border agencies to cut off financing and firearms for criminal groups, most of it from the United States. Haiti’s anti-corruption units need urgent support: despite leading 87 investigations since 2004, they have yet to prosecute a single individual.
These vital investments in the rule of law must be accompanied with support for criminal justice, political reconciliation, humanitarian and development assistance, and free and fair elections. Even as crises accumulate in other parts of the world, foreign donors cannot abandon Haiti. Haitians themselves must lead its recovery given the distractions, divisions and derelictions of the international community.