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A woman and three children flee their home from gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti October 20, 2024.
Haitian gangs assault government-held areas of the capital
Residents in Port-au-Prince’s government-controlled neighborhood of Solino have been sheltering from gang assaults that began late Thursday and intensified over the weekend. Haitian police backed by a small Kenyan-led mission are fighting to retain control of their key areas, roughly 20% of the city.
Terrified residents called local radio stations desperate for help, and the gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm posted videos of fighters hoisting weapons and saying those who oppose them will be “burned to ashes.” President Gary Conilleredeployed police and soldiers from elite units to fight instead of protecting VIPs. The attacks forced an inauguration ceremony for Haiti’s provisional electoral council to be moved to safer premises and coincided with the arrival of a mission from the Bahamas, which will deploy 150 troops to the Kenyan mission in the coming months.
Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council head Edgard Leblanc Fils addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, U.S., September 26, 2024.
Haiti’s transitional council rocked by corruption scandal
On Wednesday, three members of Haiti’s interim governing council and two other high-profile Haitians were charged with bribery by an anti-corruption agency.
The three officials are accused of demanding more than $750,000 from the director of the government-owned National Bank of Credit to secure his job, charges that threaten to undermine the legitimacy of the council, which was appointed earlier this year after gang violence forced the country’s former Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign. The bank director did not have the funds and instead gave credit cards with a $20,000 limit to the three council members. The council has yet to say whether it will take action against the three.
Why does it matter? The report will likely erode Haitians’ trust in the nine-member council, which is charged with running the country alongside its new prime minister, Garry Conille. This comes at a time when Haiti is suffering from mass starvation and horrifying gang violence, and as the UN-backed mission in Haiti struggles to regain control of the country.
News of the allegations came on the same day the Dominican Republic announced it would begin massive deportations of Haitians living illegally in the country, expelling up to 10,000 a week.
The corruption scandal threatens to shake public trust and destabilize the delicate political balance achieved through the formation of the transitional council. And, as Haitians flood back into the country from the Dominican Republic, the coming weeks will be crucial in determining whether Haiti can overcome this latest setback and continue its progress toward restoring security and democratic governance.
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives for a group photograph with his new cabinet members at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, October 1, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Ishiba forms his Cabinet, Haiti plagued by hunger, Tunisia jails opposition candidate, Eurozone inflation drops, Cambodian journalist arrested
2: He may think women should inherit the imperial thrones, but that doesn’t mean Japan’s Prime Minister-elect Shigeru Ishiba is an equal opportunity employer. Of his 19 newly appointed Cabinet ministers, only two are women, whom he’s appointed as children’s policy minister and education minister. His appointments also included two former defense ministers Ishiba has worked with in the past – one as foreign minister, another as his defense chief – signaling the new PM’s focus on security issues.
5.4 million: Hunger amid horrifying gang violence in Haiti has led nearly 6,000 people to the brink of starvation, according to a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Nearly half the 11-million-strong country – a whopping 5.4 million Haitians – are facing crisis levels of hunger and famine. The Kenyan-led intervention force has had its UN mandate extended by a year, but an effort to turn it into a formal UN peacekeeping mission was stymied by China and Russia.
12: Running for office in Tunisia can win you … years behind bars, apparently. Ayachi Zammel, a candidate in the country’s Oct. 6 presidential election, is facing 12 years in jail for cases related to voter endorsements, his lawyer said. Zammel, who remains on the ballot, was one of just two candidates approved by Tunisia's electoral authority ISIE to challenge President Kais Saied.
1.8: European homebuyers may have cause to celebrate: Inflation in the Eurozone last month dropped to 1.8%, coming in below the European Central Bank’s 2% target for the first time in three years. As a result, the ECB is expected to drop the rate by a quarter point when it meets on Oct. 17.
2: Award-winning journalist Mech Dara has been arrested and charged for social media posts that could “incite social unrest,” a Cambodian court said. Dara, who has reported on corruption and human trafficking, faces a two-year sentence if convicted, and human rights groups are calling for his release.A 'coal is dead' placard is seen during the demonstration. Activists from Friends Of The Earth and other environmental groups gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice as the legal challenge to the Whitehaven coal mine in Cumbria begins.
Hard Numbers: UK buries coal, Austria’s far right surges, Le Pen faces trial, UN extends but doesn’t expand Haiti mission, Russia spends more on guns (less on butter)
142: After 142 years, the UK government closed the country’s last coal-fired power plant on Monday night. Coal power was a critical factor in the British-born Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, but it wasn’t until 1882 that the British opened the first public coal power plant. The closure is part of the government’s plan to generate 100% of Great Britain’s energy from renewable sources by 2030. Our favorite British coal story? How coal pollution changed the color of the Peppered Moths of Manchester.
29.2: Austria’s Freedom Party became the first far-right party to win an election in the country since World War II, after taking 29.2% of the vote in Sunday’s election by appealing to Austrians worried about immigration, inflation, and the Ukraine war. But it’s a familiar story in Europe these days: A far-right party takes a plurality of the vote, only to find that it lacks an obvious coalition partner to form a government. The incumbent Austrian People’s Party has said it will only work with the Freedom Party if party boss Herbert Kickl renounces any cabinet position. That’s a tough sell – Kickl says he wants to be chancellor.
9: Meanwhile, elsewhere in European right-wing news, Marine Le Pen, the former leader and top candidate of France’s National Rally party, began a nine-week trial in which she and two dozen other party officials are accused of misusing EU funds by using them to pay party staff for political work. Le Pen says the payments were legitimate. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison, fines of several million euros, and possibly being deemed ineligible to run for office. She is considered a top contender in the 2027 presidential election.
1: The UN Security council agreed unanimously on Monday to authorize the UN-backed security force in Haiti for one more year. But a US proposal to make the mission – currently a Kenya-led volunteer force – into a formal UN peacekeeping operation was blocked by Russia and China, which said the current force needs more time to find its footing. Haiti, for its part, has called for a peacekeeping operation as the Kenyan-led force struggles to subdue the powerful gangs that have taken control over vast swathes of the capital.
25: Russia will boost defense spending by 25% next year, as Vladimir Putin doubles down both on his invasion of Ukraine and on the deeper militarization of the economy at home. Social spending, meanwhile, is set to fall by nearly 20%. Heavy spending on defense has helped to insulate Russia’s economy from the effects of Western sanctions, with GDP growing 3.6% last year and forecasters predicting a similar outcome this year. How secure is Putin? Read our recent piece on the endless ends of the Russian president.Jamaican and Belizean security personnel disembark from a U.S. Coast Guard airplane in a deployment to support an international security mission aimed at fighting gangs, at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti September 12, 2024.
Haiti takes baby step toward first elections in a decade
The Haitian government created a provisional electoral council Wednesday tasked with organizing elections by February 2026 — 10 years after the last vote in the troubled Caribbean country. The council’s foundation comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described it as a “critical next step” during a visit two weeks ago, but it faces daunting security and legitimacy challenges.
Gangs still control vast areas of the capital, and the Kenyan-led security mission has been agonizingly slow to deploy. Currently just 600 Kenyans and a handful of Jamaicans are backing the beleaguered Haitian National Police and military against the heavily armed gangs that ousted then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry in March. Holding a representative election will be impossible until the security situation improves dramatically, particularly in Port-au-Prince — and it may require compromise instead of coercion. We’re watching whether gang-associated figures end up on the ballot.
Election authorities will need to build trust even if the security situation improves. There are currently no elected officials in all of Haiti. Prime Minister Garry Conille was appointed by an unelected transitional presidential council formed with a good deal of backroom horse trading in the wake of Henry’s resignation. Henry himself was also unelected, and has been dogged by rumors implicating him in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Even this first step toward democratic restoration was marred, as the electoral council has only filled seven of the legally required nine seats.
FILE PHOTO: A Kenyan police officer stands guard during a joint operation with Haitian police, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti July 29, 2024.
Blinken heads to Haiti as Kenyan force faces time crunch
US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenvisited Haiti for the first time on Thursday, underscoring American support for the struggling Caribbean government and the Kenyan-led security mission meant to stabilize the country. Nairobi sent special police officers to Haiti in late June as part of a UN-approved mission to bolster Haiti’s law enforcement and military against well-armed and organized gangs. The Kenyans have made significant strides alongside the Haitian National Police in securing key landmarks in the capital, Port-au-Prince, but they’re running short of money and time — the mission’s mandate is set to expire on Oct. 2 and would need to be renewed — and ordinary Haitians still face daily violence from gangs.
The US is considering requesting that the UN turn the Kenyan-led operation into a formal peacekeeping operation, which could avoid the need for renewals. The Kenyan commander Godfrey Otunge says the gangs’ days are numbered, but the other countries that pledged to send troops to back up his officers have not followed through. Otunge has only 400 of the 2,500 men who are supposed to be under his command.
The ad hoc nature of the mission contributes to the sluggishness: The UN took nearly a year to approve the mandate, and then Kenya took another nine months to get boots on the ground. During that time, gangs ousted PM Ariel Henry and solidified control over more than 80% of Port-au-Prince. By the time the Kenyans arrived, they only had three months left in their mandate. Redesignating it as a formal PKO could ease some time constraints and provide a formal mechanism for other countries to fulfill their troop pledges. We’re watching how the debate unfolds.A Kenyan police officer walks in front of an armored personnel carrier during a joint operation with Haitian police, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti July 29, 2024.
Kenyan-led force puts dent in gang control over Haiti
There’s some good news coming out of Haiti, for a change. The Kenyan-led international force that was deployed roughly two months ago to tackle gang violence has made “significant progress,” according to Kenyan police.
Crucial infrastructure, such as the airport, is no longer controlled by gangs, and the force has also “opened critical roads that have enabled the return of thousands of Haitians earlier displaced.” The UN estimates that close to 600,000 people in Haiti have been displaced by the gang violence that’s had a chokehold over the country since the 2o21 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and the power vacuum that followed. By March 2024, gangs controlled around 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
But even as they’ve made progress in Haiti, hundreds of Kenyan police officers serving in the multinational security force have not received full pay in two months — an issue that’s expected to be rectified this week.
Though the international force has made marginal gains over the gangs, they’re still carrying out attacks and kidnappings. The Kenyan-led force also lacks equipment, such as helicopters, that could aid in the fight against the gangs.
We’ll be watching to see if the security force in Haiti — which was authorized by the UN Security Council for a one-year mission, with a review after nine months — continues to successfully loosen the grip gangs have over the Caribbean nation.
Members of the second contingent of Kenyan police greet each other after arriving in the Caribbean country as part of a peacekeeping mission, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti July 16, 2024.
Double duty: Kenya and Bangladesh try to balance domestic crises with Haiti aid
Haiti’s Prime Minister Garry Conillecalled for gangs to surrender their weapons and recognize the state’s authority late Wednesday, as a Kenyan-led police mission there enjoys some early success.
Some 200 officers arrived in late June and are trying to take back the capital from gangs that launched a series of highly coordinated attacks in February, ousting former Prime Minister Ariel Henry and seizing about 80% of the capital. The mission received another 200 Kenyan officers on Tuesday, and, within the coming months, the multinational force is expected to see recruits from other countries, including Bangladesh. But oddly enough, both Nairobi and Dhaka are facing severe challenges to law and order at home.
Kenya is entering its second month of deadly protests calling for the resignation of President William Ruto. But Ruto has doubled down, banning protests in Nairobi mere hours before a demonstration was planned for Thursday. Protests are likely to continue and will be met by a violent police response.
Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, at least 32 people have been killed in police clashes during nationwide, student-led protests this week. The young activists are demonstrating over quotas that reserve 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 War of Independence. Protesters announced they will force a nationwide shutdown in response to the police brutality in one of the most severe challenges yet to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled for 20 years.
We’re watching for signs of whether the security mission’s main contributors feel they need to put their own houses in order before helping Haiti.