Haiti’s government to ask for international armed forces to help with humanitarian crisis

Haiti’s interim government is asking for an armed force to come to its aid as a powerful armed gang alliance continues to block roads, seaports and the distribution of fuel from the country’s main terminal and a cholera epidemic threatens to plunge the country deeper into a humanitarian crisis.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry and his council of ministers agreed to make the request for military assistance from the international community late Thursday, several sources with knowledge of the decision confirmed to the Miami Herald.

The written request is expected to be sent to Haiti’s allies on Friday. The government does not specify where the armed forces should come from, only that help is needed to allow fuel to once more flow freely from the Varreux Terminal and to respond to a deadly cholera outbreak.

Shortly after ministers agreed to make the request, rumors circulated in parts of Port-au-Prince that Henry had resigned. As crowds took to the streets in celebration, gunshots could be heard reverberating in some neighborhoods.

In a Facebook post, the prime minister’s communications office said that it “categorically denies” that the “Prime Minister, Dr. Ariel Henry, would have resigned.”

The office said the rumors are intended “to sow more trouble and confusion.”

Henry’s request came at the end of a day in which the United Nations and its humanitarian partners pleaded with armed gangs, the government of Haiti and the international community to allow for “a humanitarian corridor” so that fuel could once more flow throughout the country. Since Sept. 12, the country’s main fuel terminal has not been operable, forcing hospitals to close their doors, schools to delay the start of the academic year and water treatment facilities to announce a halt in production.

As access to clean water and food quickly dissipate, social unrest continues along with a resurgence in cholera that is stoking panic as the health ministry investigates scores of suspected cases after confirming several deaths over the weekend.

“Without fuel, there is no clean water, without no clean water, there will be more cases and it will be very difficult to contain this outbreak,” Ulrika Richardson, the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator for Haiti told journalists Thursday from Port-au-Prince as she spoke at the U.N.’s noon press briefing.

Hours later, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who is attending this week’s OAS General Assembly in Lima, Peru tweeted that he was calling on “Haiti to request urgent support from international community to help solve security crisis and determine characteristics of the international security force.”

Almagro said he had participated in a meeting regarding Haiti with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Canada Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Haiti Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Victor Geneus during the 52nd summit. Haiti has been receiving special attention during the gathering of hemispheric leaders.

In statements about his discussions, Blinken made no reference to the possibility of troops nor whether the Biden administration, which is about a month from critical midterm elections in the United States, would support such a request. Blinken acknowledged that the magnitude of the challenge in tumultuous Haiti is real and is now compounded by a cholera outbreak “that we want to make sure we help our friends get a grip on.”

Blinken made the comments before a Canada-hosted meeting on Haiti on the margins of the summit. He said the United States is deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation and condemns “the acts of violence, the looting, the destruction of the past weeks, including the gangs’ continuing fuel blockade, which has had a devastating impact across Haiti, undermining the health, undermining the safety, of thousands of people.”

“We’ll continue to promote accountability for those responsible for fomenting the violence, particularly economic and political actors instigating these events for their own interests,” Blinken added.

The U.S. Secretary of State acknowledged that the Haiti National Police needs help, and noted the United States’ recent allocation of more than $90 million in security assistance to strengthen the force’s capacity to counter the gangs.

“We remain committed to working with the international community and the Haitian people as they seek to restore security and democratic order for a more prosperous future, support for the political track which is so critical, as well as the necessary economic and humanitarian support,” he said.

The issue of foreign intervention is a thorny one in Haiti, where Haitians who acknowledge that the police is incapable of taking back control from the gangs, also oppose such a presence. Others, however, say it is necessary given the depth of the crisis.

In a statement, a civil society coalition seeking to replace Henry and head a transition of Haiti condemned his request for troops saying that “it will not resolved the population’s problems.” The Montana Accord, as the group is known, would establish a different kind of governance in the country, the statement said.

For weeks now, Henry has been the target of anti-government protests, with Haitians calling for his resignation. On Thursday, 13 members of the U.S. Congress wrote to President Biden asking him to remove support for Henry saying that he has “no constitutional and popular mandate” and has failed to quell the violence since taking the reins of the country after the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

“In the past year, Haiti’s security and humanitarian situations have also spiraled downward. Criminal gangs effectively control the ports and half of Haiti. They have close ties to the political classes and the economic elite, and engage freely in kidnapping and sexual-and gender-based violence,” the letter said.

Signers of the letters also accuse the Haitian police of conspiring with the gangs and say that past efforts to build a professional and accountable police force by the United States have failed. With free and fair elections, nor effective aid delivery of humanitarian assistance currently not possible, the members of Congress urge the administration to support the Montana Accord, a coalition of civil society leaders that last year elected a president and prime minister to lead the country in a transition. Henry, they said, has been unwilling to engage “meaningfully” with representatives of the accord.

Earlier this week, a power-sharing agreement between the Montana Accord’s designated president, Fritz Alphonse Jean, a U.S.-educated economist and former central bank governor, and Henry unraveled after months of negotiations when Jean backed out.