In Port-au-Prince, nearly three million people are living in the grips of all-out gang war. France24 spent a fortnight filming in and around the Haitian capital, speaking to a population held hostage by this drawn-out crisis.
Gangs now control more than 80% of the city, and their notorious spokesman Jimmy Chérizier, also known as “Barbecue”, told our team they’re not counting on laying down their weapons any time soon. “We demand to be at the negotiating table,” he said from his stronghold in the slums of lower Port-au-Prince. “If not, we will continue to fight.” Barbecue is the frontman of a powerful alliance of the capital’s gangs called Viv Ansamn. Instead of fighting each other, the armed groups have united and turned their firepower on the state, forcing prime minister Ariel Henry to resign during an overseas trip in March.
Today, the gangs wield considerable economic and military leverage. They control most of Port-au-Prince’s seafront, and therefore the zones surrounding the strategically vital ports. Haiti relies heavily on imports, shipping in more than 50% of its food, a figure shocking for a country with an abundance of fertile land. Many Haitians blame corrupt, ultra-wealthy elites for nurturing the situation and building up vast family fortunes via monopolies on the trade in staple goods. “At first, some businessmen used youths and bandits to attack rivals, pillage and set on fire the businesses of those they didn’t want to deal with, and kidnap competitors … [but] the gangs became more structured and much more powerful and now in most cases, they’ve turned against their former masters.”
In the lower shantytowns of Port-au-Prince which are the gangs’ bastions, thousands of people remain, unable or unwilling to flee. Murders, kidnappings, gang rapes, fires are common and no end to the crisis seems in sight.