Haiti’s main armed gangs said on Sunday that they had accepted a truce to allow the distribution of humanitarian aid to the thousands affected by last week’s earthquake, which left at least 2,207 dead and more than 12,000 injured.
Jimmy Cherizier, alias Barbecue, leader of G9 an Fanmi and Alye, the country’s largest federation of armed gangs, confirmed the truce in a video, although authorities have not corroborated the existence of an agreement.
“Congratulations to us because at this time we have decided to make peace,” Barbecue said, thanking the bands that control the Martissant neighborhood, on the road between Port-au-Prince and the area hardest hit by the quake, for leaving pass humanitarian aid convoys.
The capo also announced that his armed group will bring help in the coming days to the victims of the earthquake and called on all Haitians to cooperate with the victims in any way they can.
THE ROAD, CONTROLLED BY BANDS
Insecurity has been one of the main complications in bringing aid to the southwestern peninsula of Haiti, the area hardest hit by the 7.2-degree earthquake, a region where 650,000 people need assistance.
Especially, due to the presence of armed gangs in the Martissant district, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, an area of forced passage by land to reach this area.
The general coordinator of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Aecid) in Haiti, Manuel Alba, told Efe that the insecurity is “total”, although “there has been a kind of negotiation” to decree a truce .
However, this truce “is not real. This is like negotiating with the devil. It is complicated,” said the head of Aecid, a body that in collaboration with several Spanish NGOs sent a shipment to Haiti this Sunday. 30 tons of aid.
LACK OF HUMANITARIAN AID
In addition, the situation in Haiti is so precarious that, in the face of a disaster like this, the despair of part of the population has led to several lootings of humanitarian aid trucks.
“What needs to be done is to be very careful, go in a convoy and report very well” before embarking on a journey, said Alba, who noted that the trucks assaulted in recent days were going “without any escort.”
The director of the World Food Program (WFP) in Haiti, Pierre Honorat, told Efe that “the situation of insecurity may disrupt the organization’s assistance” to the vulnerable population.
“We are talking to the authorities and all the actors involved to try to avoid it,” he pointed out.
ORDER AND SECURITY, THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
Not all help distributions are problematic. This morning 700 packages of food were being delivered from a private donation, an action that has been organized by Yvone Alcegarie, an agronomist by profession who does not belong to any entity.
As he explained during the distribution in a hotel near the airport of Les Cayes, the logistics have been based on a previous survey to locate the families most in need of support, to whom a voucher was given with which they had to show up at the site this Sunday, the day of the cast.
Police have collaborated by betting on twelve officers to guard the operation at the facility, where the bearers of the shelter have received water, rice, oil, beans and, in the case of mothers with young children, diapers.
FEED THE SOUL
Many Haitians also need to nurture their spirit and seek solace in religion, although temples of different beliefs have preferred to offer trades on the street and very early, except for one.
On the outskirts of Les Cayes, a group of evangelical devotees participated in the worship offered by Pastor Severin Macdy Jonas, in a half-built structure affected by the earthquake, where part of the congregation met in the first service after the earthquake.
“We’re not too scared to be inside,” he stated. “People need to pray. Today we are forced to come together to thank the Lord for His help,” added the pastor, who has seen his congregation shrink due to the disaster.