by Javier Tovar Agence France-Presse SANTA CRUZ DE EL SEIBO, Dominican Republic (AFP) — When Andres was 12, his Dominican Republic citizenship — his only possession of any real value — was snatched from him by a court ruling targeting people with foreign-born parents. Ten years later, Andres is still undocumented in the country where he was born, working a backbreaking, low-paying job in the sugarcane fields with little hope of bettering himself. Andres’s mother […]
Tag: Haiti
Haitian schools becoming targets of violence: UNICEF
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Schools in Haiti, previously considered safe havens from the Caribbean nation’s turmoil, have become increasingly targeted by violent groups, UNICEF warned Thursday. The UN agency reported that since the beginning of the school year last October, 72 schools had seen acts of violence — including kidnappings, ransacking and looting — a nine-fold increase over a year ago. “This includes at least 13 schools targeted by armed groups, one school […]
Jamaica ready to join international force in Haiti
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AFP) — Jamaica is ready to participate militarily in an international force in Haiti, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, an intervention the UN has been calling for without success for months to counter record violence by criminal gangs. “Jamaica will be willing to participate in a multinational security assistance deployment to Haiti under the appropriate jurisdictional parameters to support a return to a reasonable level of stability and peace, which would be necessary […]
Police protest in Haiti after six officers killed
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Civilian protesters and police marched through Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday to demonstrate against a slew of killings of police officers by armed gangs in worsening violence in the Caribbean nation. Streets were blocked with barricades the day after gangs, who control much of Haiti and regularly kidnap people for ransom, attacked police headquarters in Liancourt, a town in the north of Haiti, killing six officers. The protesters tried to storm […]
IMF approves $105 mn in emergency aid to Haiti
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved emergency aid of $105 million for Haiti, which has long been mired in a humanitarian crisis that has been exacerbated by recent global inflation. The funds should enable the Caribbean country to “support those most affected by food price rises through feeding programs and cash and in-kind transfers to vulnerable households” said Antoinette Sayeh, the IMF deputy managing director, in a statement. The […]
Haitians flock for passports to reach US under new program
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Haitians seeking to escape from poverty and despair are flocking to government offices hoping to get a passport and perhaps their ticket to life in America under a new US immigration program. At the main migration office in Port-au-Prince, the crowd is so big that security officers keep the metal gates closed and only let people in one by one. Under the new policy announced by President Joe Biden, the United […]
Haitians accuse Dominicans of race-based arrests, expulsions
by Richard Pierrin with Amelie Baron in Paris Agence France-Presse PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — His Haitian passport was in order, with up-to-date visas, so when police in the Dominican Republic detained him for hours, Josue Azor feels certain it was because of the black color of his skin. The arrest of the young photographer came amid a wave of expulsions of Haitian migrants by the Santo Domingo government, with Black people being specifically targeted, according […]
For struggling Haiti, return of cholera is a ‘catastrophe’
by Jean Daniel SENAT with Lucie AUBOURG in Washington Agence France-Presse PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — When humanitarian officials in Haiti try to describe their concerns over a new, fast-spreading cholera epidemic, they struggle to find words strong enough: “alarming,” “chaotic,” even “a catastrophe.” A sizable part of the island’s population has been isolated — and unable to access health care — either by serious fuel shortages or by the brutal armed gangs that control vast […]
Haiti reports first deaths from cholera in three years
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) – At least seven people in Haiti have died from cholera, authorities said Sunday, raising fresh fears of a resurgent epidemic in the crisis-wracked Caribbean nation. Cholera killed around 10,000 people in the wake of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, when United Nations workers helping the response introduced it to the country. Nearly three years after Haiti’s last confirmed case of the illness, the country’s health ministry on Sunday said multiple suspected cases had […]
‘Desperation’ in violence-ravaged Haiti: UN hears
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Officials described a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Haiti to the UN Security Council Monday, as the nation hits “new levels of desperation” after two weeks of violence and attacks on food aid warehouses. Protests and looting have rocked the already unstable nation since September 11, when Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced a fuel price hike; he says subsidies are too expensive for one of the world’s poorest states. “An economic […]
Some embassies in Haitian capital close citing unrest
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP) — Several countries said this week they were temporarily shutting their embassies in Haiti’s capital, amid unrest over fuel price hikes. That move has sparked demonstrations in one of the Americas’ poorest countries, where the government is struggling to take on powerful gangs and provide basic services. The embassy of the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, said it was closing its “doors to the […]
At least 234 dead or hurt in Haiti gang violence from July 8-12: UN
by Christophe VOGT Agence France Presse Gang violence killed or injured at least 234 people from July 8-12 in Haiti’s Cite Soleil, an impoverished and densely populated neighbourhood of the capital Port-au-Prince, the United Nations said on Saturday. The unrest erupted between two rival factions and the city’s ill-equipped and understaffed police failed to intervene, trapping residents in their homes, unable to go out for even food and water. With many houses in the […]





