President Irfaan Ali issues public statement for Haiti on behalf of CARICOM

Chairman of The Caribbean Community & President of Guyana, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, shared an 80-second video addressing the unfolding events of Haiti and said that CARICOM is “Deeply engaged” with finding potential solutions.

Chaos and unrest have gripped Haiti with tensions rising over the past week, on the 1^st of March, gunmen opened fire at various targeted locations in the nation, followed by a siege of Port-Au-Prince. Two prisons were broken into by a coalition of several gangs which led to 4000 inmates being freed. Jimmy Cherizier, former elite police officer, alias “Barbeque”, has claimed responsibility for these attacks. A three-day state of emergency was declared in the nation, including an immediately enforced curfew; the nation's severely understaffed and poorly equipped police force has been unable to contain gang violence and degeneracy in the region. During this year's Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting, the discourse and debates largely surrounded the turmoil in Haiti. On the 5^th of March, the official CARICOM social pages shared an 80-second video of President Irfaan Ali addressing the situation, this has been CARICOM’s first public statement in relation to Haiti since the siege of Port-Au-Prince took place.

In the video, President Irfaan Ali stated the following,

“As Chairman of CARICOM, I wish to make the following Statement on behalf of the Community in relation to the development in Haiti.” “CARICOM has been singularly focused on the events unfolding in Haiti over the last few days. The expanded Bureau has been meeting separately with Prime Minister Henry, the Stakeholders in Haiti, and our International Partners, to bring resolution to this highly complex matter, where persons’ lives and livelihoods are at stake. The complexity requires us in these consultations to ensure that a Haitian-led and a Haitian-owned solution may be achieved as soon as possible. We remain deeply engaged and will update on the outcome of our deliberations as soon as practicable. Thank you”

[embed]https://twitter.com/presidentaligy/status/1765074845610729598[/embed]

As of this point in time, unable to reach his homeland, the acting Haitian President, Ariel Henry is reportedly in Puerto Rico, where he travelled to Kenya to sign a deal for the deployment of multinational police forces in Haiti to control the gang situation, President Henry is yet to make a public statement on the events that unfolded over the past week.

The United States has refused to send troops to Haiti fearing it may add fuel to the fire, Sunrise Airways has also suspended all operations from March 1 in Haiti, alongside the forced cancellation of most flights to and from Port-Au-Prince.