After many delays, Jamaica has finally made good on its promise to send aid to Haiti, a nation embroiled in a long-standing conflict with powerful gangs, and has sent twenty-four soldiers and police officers to the embattled country, set to arrive on Thursday.
As International Insight has previously examined, Haiti has been suffering in a state of turmoil for years now, a key part of which is the violent war between gangs and the nation’s government, centered in the Haitian capital city of Port-au-Prince. What’s especially different about this conflict, though, is that rather than dispute amongst themselves, the Haitian gangs have banded together and practically formed a coalition against the Haitian government.
The effects this war has had on Haiti is increasing by the day. In the first three months of this year alone, over 1500 people were killed due to the violence in Haiti, adding to the almost 4500 casualties from 2023, not to mention the widespread torture, sexual assault, and other violent crimes taking place against the people of Haiti.
To make matters worse, the Haitian police are severely outnumbered, making up a little over 0.09% of the nation’s population. By contrast, the United States employed almost 850,000 police officers in 2022, or almost 0.26% of the population, nearly three times that of Haiti. As the police fail to do their job, countless Haitians have taken it upon themselves to uphold justice, resulting in almost 600 lynchings from January 2023 to March 2024 alone.
On the other hand, the gangs holding Haiti in a chokehold are as strong as their government and police are weak. Throughout the years, these gangs have made extreme shows of power and control, such as the fuel shortage and disruption in water and medicine deliveries caused by the G9 gang in 2022.
To exacerbate this, most gangs are highly armed, especially when compared to the Haiti police officers, as they gain access to highly powerful firearms smuggled into the Caribbean nation from the United States. In addition, many gangs are leveraging their power to enlist young children to serve as spies, lookouts, or fill other necessary roles.
In order to mitigate the crisis, many nations across the globe, including Kenya, Jamaica, Chad, Barbados, Bangladesh, and the Bahamas, have all promised to deploy soldiers, police, and other law enforcement officials to support Haiti. In addition, many nations, such as Canada and the U.S., have pledged monetary support.
Yet, the extent to which these promises have actually come to fruition is quite limited.
For example, Jamaica, who has promised to send in military support to Haiti since early 2023, has only now managed to deploy 24 personnel to the nation out of the 200 promised, over a year and a half from the initial pledge.
In addition, Jamaica, along with Benin, Belize, and the Bahamas, had previously pledged to deploy 2900 law enforcement officials to Haiti, a promise that clearly never came to fruition, as evidenced by Jamaica’s actions on Tuesday.
Perhaps the only country that has even come remotely close to meeting the amount of troops it promised is Kenya. Initially pledging 1000 troops, Kenya has now dispatched a total of 400 soldiers to Haiti, consistently providing support for the (semi)island nation throughout the entire conflict.
As Haiti continues to battle the gangs steadily overtaking its capital, it’s vital that the nations of the world make good on their promises to the people of Haiti and send the money, troops, and other forms of aid that Haiti desperately needs to put a stop to the violence plaguing the nation.
Yet as attention for Haiti’s struggles continues to recede on the global stage in light of the wars plaguing the eastern hemisphere, chances that it’ll receive this much-needed aid are on the decline. As a global people, it is our duty to continue to advocate for the people of Haiti and to bring their stories to light in hopes that our nations will take rapid, concerted action against the gangs perpetuating violence in Haiti and that its people will soon be free of the bloodshed and death that has overtaken the nation for countless years.
