The 79th UN General Assembly is underway in New York City, attracting world leaders from across the globe, including the president of the CPT, Edgard Leblanc Fils and Prime Minister Garry Conille. Initially, there were some confusions as to the participation or non-participation of the leader of the transitional council, as no clear directives were forthcoming from the US State Department, which assures the security world leaders when they come to New York. As of Saturday, there were no clear information between the UN, the State Department and the Haitian mission to the UN which work to coordinate the participation of the country’s leaders. The US authorities in Haiti have since corrected what was a snafu and assured the Haitian delegation that full security measures will be accorded them, just as is the case with other world leaders.
On Monday, PM Garry Conille and his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau co-presided over an ECOSOC meeting on the Haitian crisis. Canada is currently presiding over the ad hoc consultative group of the ECOSOC on Haiti. In his opening remarks, PM Conille spoke of significant and transformational progress that has been made under his leadership, including such activities as the joint operations of the Kenyan forces in his country to assume leadership of the MSSM, and the national police whose cooperation has so far been hailed as positive. However, he argues that his country needs more resources to overcome a crisis that has been underestimated. He pointed out that after 100 days in office, he has concluded that the Haitian crisis, in its security, humanitarian, social, economic, and political components, has been largely underestimated. The gangs are not simple disorganized bands, but real armed groups, often well-equipped and determined, with transnational ramifications. In some cases, the situation the country is facing is nothing less than an urban war requiring law enforcement to act house by house, because buildings and neighborhoods are often transformed into death traps. He asked for more sophisticated weapons, more substantial resources, and increased training for the forces to respond sustainably to this threat, which sometimes takes on the appearance of a civil war. In front of more than forty country representatives and international partners, the PM pointed out that his country couldn’t face the problems alone, that it is imperative that the international community stand by Haiti, with resources that match the challenges.
In other news, the Conille administration has embarked on an operation to reclaim school blocks and classrooms that have been occupied by the displaced persons for over a year due to violence by armed gangs in several neighborhoods in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. As the start of school approaches, officials want to do everything possible to make the sure the classrooms are available to students and have thus started to call on the displaced persons in such establishments to vacate the premises by the end of the month of September. The commission formed by the PM’s office has confirmed that an agreement has been reached between the government, the managers of the various centers and the NGOs working with the displaced people to recover public schools. Families have been encouraged to start evacuating on September 17, 2024, with the government intending to assist these families. At the lycée Marie Jeanne most families are at a loss as to where to go because they simply don’t know where to go. Nevertheless, most went to join a queue to register at the request of Mercy Corps, an NGO that helps displaced people, for a chance to get 30,000 gourdes to relocate. Mercy Corps said that measures are already in place for these people to vacate the premised, because these people are ready to leave as they do not benefit from any support from the state and have been living in subhuman conditions with no access to drinking water or health food. The NGO has counted 5,500 people or 1,400 families and since provided the list to the Civil Protection for the necessary follow up. It is known that the neighborhoods that these people escaped from are still not safe for them to return to.
Meanwhile, the internet access problem that crippled the communication networks across the nation last week seems to be the result of a clash between the mobile phone company Digicel and Kaliko Beach officials, over a contract to operate a site housing optical fibers essential to the power supply of Digicel data centers. But following a meeting on Tuesday between presidential advisor Leslie Voltaire and stakeholders in the telecommunications sector, police officers and a justice of the peace accompanied by Digicel technicians were dispatched to the site. The internet outage was due to the refusal of Kaliko Beach officials to let Digicel technicians work on the site. According to the CPT, their representative Leslie Voltaire had an emergency meeting with key players in the telecommunications sector to address the internet outage affecting Digicel services. The participants (Digicel, Natcom, CONATEL & MTPTC) explored different solutions to restore connections as quickly as possible and stressed the importance of stable internet access for the Haitian population. The government is now considering the area where the fiber cables are buried a public utility zone. Since Saturday, September 14, the majority of Digicel users have been experiencing difficulties, particularly with their internet connection. In an interview on Magik 9 on Monday morning, Digicel CEO Jean Philippe deplored the fact that the owners of Kaliko Beach Club are refusing his technicians access to the site to repair damage to the equipment that connects an underwater cable to Digicel’s data center. In an open letter, Emmanuel Paret, head of Kaliko Beach, indicated that the telecommunications company, Digicel owes him US $2.5 million, which he has been trying to get since 2019, for granting them the right to use his property for the cables, despite multiple attempts to resolve this matter.
Finally, the national police have increased its operations around the country and is recording small victories and consolidating position, thanks to the motivation of the troops and the maximum use of the available resources. Compared to the last three months, the police are carrying out operations everywhere, in the city center, in Solino, in Bel-Air, and the recovered positions have been consolidated. Operations at Carrefour-Feuilles, at the Alerte alley made it possible to neutralize members of the Village-de-Dieu gang who were using the Port-au-Prince cemetery. This has reduced the pressure at the Champ de Mars where people are starting to gather again. The progress in Bel-Air would be much greater today if the PNH did not have to mobilize its resources in La Saline to fight seasoned bandits who shoot at the APN, at the armored vehicles, and the police officers. The police have also made progress in Gressier, and are hoping that once new equipment become available, they’ll be able free up the national roads in the coming months. All these, coupled with the good relations the PNH has with the Kenyan and Jamaican MSSM troops. Furthermore, the process of purging the PNH is moving forward, as there are police officers who are now denouncing other police officers who work for gangs, giving hope for a return to normal soon.