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Weekly Report - 07 March 2024 (WR-24-09)

Haiti’s future hangs in balance amid unprecedented gang attacks

Even by recent standards, Haiti plumbed new depths of chaos and anarchy this week amid a series of attacks coordinated by top gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier, with the stated aim of bringing down the government. Prime Minister Ariel Henry is out of the country, unable to return after gangs began a wave of violence on 29 February, days after he left for a Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit in Guyana. This is not the first time that Chérizier has called for the departure of Henry, who took over the post unelected following the assassination of former president Jovenel Moïse (2017-2021). However, the level of coordination by gangs, who vandalised police (PNd’H) stations, targeted the country’s busiest airport, and carried out a mass jail break, freeing thousands of inmates, is a new first, prompting the government to declare a 72-hour state of emergency.

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