A doctor in Haiti tells people not to get sick during the health-care crisis

The gangs that killed Ariel Henry – what they did when they came to the Cap-Hatien airport: a highlight of normal life in Haiti

Gangs continued their rampage across Port-au-Prince Thursday. They shot at the airport as workers began to fix the damage from previous attacks.

There was no law and order in the capital during this time, as well as a shortage of humanitarian aid. The outside world has stopped being visited by the country.

The last two weeks have been chaotic for a country that has experienced coups, transitional governments, assassinations and gang violence over the years.

The violence follows a couple of days of relative quiet and it comes just days after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign, as part of a deal brokered by regional and international governments to install a transitional council that will eventually elect a new transitional prime minister.

Some prominent gang leaders have rejected the plan, saying it doesn’t represent the will of the Haitian people. The gangs threat of more violence to oppose the plan.

Guy Philippe was a former senator and ex-chief of police who was one of the leaders of the 1991 coup that deposed Jean-Bertrand Aristide. After being deported back to Haiti, he started organizing large anti-government protests and pleaded guilty to drug-related money laundered in the United Stats.

The current political transition deal in Haiti allows seven traditional politicians to choose how to go forward, which is a problem he tells NPR.

“They were the same guys who were working with Ariel Henry for three years. The same name, the same organizations, with no popular support. I don’t know why the international community wants to take that path,” Philippe says.

When the international community announced the deal, the president of Guyana said no gangs had been consulted. But he said, “That we know of.” To Philippe, that spoke to what he calls an open secret: that traditional politicians in Haiti are the ones who he alleges created the gangs to begin with. He claims that they funded and armed them.

NPR’s team crossed the border with the Dominican Republic to reach Cap-Hatien, the second largest city in Haiti. We’ve seen what is normal in many ways. Restaurants are open, people are out buying groceries. Here in Cap-Haïtien, which used to be a tourist hub, there was music and dancing and bars.

You don’t have to wait long to notice that something is wrong here. Fuel is running out, the towns up and down this northern coast are in complete darkness. When Jovenel Mose was assassinated in the year 2020, they had no consistent electricity.

Source: A glimpse of the chaos in Haiti, a country reeling with effectively no leader

Towards a new leadership in Haiti: NPR talks to Frismer Fidele about the current crisis in the Dominican Republic

On the border before crossing into Haiti, NPR talked to Frismer Fidele. He was leaning against a fence watching the deportation of people from Haiti to their homeland. The Dominican Republic’s mass deportation program doesn’t stopped despite the increased violence in Haiti.

The people who talk to NPR say they are happy that the gunfire has stopped in these parts of Haiti. They say that before Prime Minister Henry promised to resign, they heard nonstop gunfire in the evening. And now some schools and some universities have reopened.

One man who used to work as a tourist guide, and now is just trying to find any work to keep food on his table, says what is happening in Haiti is not just criminal gangs revolting. He says that Haitians have been living in poverty for too long, and they’re tired of it.

For many years, Fidele said, there has been a government in Haiti that doesn’t know how poor people are living. He wants a new leadership so we can have elections, so they can be heard.

Source: A glimpse of the chaos in Haiti, a country reeling with effectively no leader

A Haitian physician in the health-care crisis tells NPR: ‘This is not a time to get sick,’ says an OB-GYN

Ever since he graduated high school, he says, he’s been trying to build a life. But it’s hard because the only job he seems to be able to get is to shuttle luggage for travelers from one border to another. He used to earn enough money to pay for a place to live. These days, it’s just enough to eat.

A week ago, their OB- gnr told them that their pregnant cousin needed a C-section to deliver her baby. It was nighttime She was concerned about going too far. The mother and her daughter went to the closest hospital. The doctor says their cousin died because there wasn’t enough electricity or oxygen to perform the procedure.

The doctor says that when a person is released, they feel unsafe because they have given information. That means they are aware of you. The physician stopped going to the hospital after the kidnapping.

The doctor says that one of the two colleagues who were released was crying and the other refused to talk about what happened.

Women who are pregnant are scared to go to the hospital for care because they want to be safe. Why? They are afraid because of the fact that they will get shot. There are gangs throughout the world. The gangs are very powerful.

An OB-GYN who works in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien says if you have money, you have options for health care. Those who are poor suffer the most — and more than half the country’s population falls below the poverty line.

Hospitals and clinics are seeing more frequent electricity disruptions because of the violence over the last couple weeks. Medications and oxygen are in short supply. Even if people are able to go to a health center, they may not get the care they need.

Zanmi Lasante, which serves more than 780,000 patients across its 17 health facilities, tells NPR that it is seeing 40% fewer people. Security concerns and logistical challenges are some of the reasons why operating hours have been reduced.

Source: ‘This is not a time to get sick,’ says a doctor in Haiti on the health-care crisis

The Street-King-Naira-Boson Crisis: “This is not a time to get sick,” says a Doctor in Haiti on the Health-Care Crisis

One casualty of the tumult gripping Haiti is transfusions. Street gangs have been a part of the country for decades, but in the last few years they’ve become increasingly powerful and violent. The gangs seized the chance to band together while the Prime Minister was in Nairobi negotiating with the country’s government about bringing a security force to Haiti. They shuttered the airport, attacked police stations and freed several thousand prisoners.

This rampage is preventing many Haitians from getting basic services like health care. Some hospitals have had to close because of gangs raiding them. Lambert said he’s needed a police escort inside an armored vehicle just to make it to work.

Henry decided to step down earlier this week in response to these actions. The gangs are now demanding a political role in whatever comes next. Gang leaders are holding press conferences even as their members, including children, women and health Workers, are being held hostage in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

“I had a call from a friend seeking care for a family member,” says Dr. Wesler Lambert, executive director of the nonprofit Zanmi Lasante, affiliated with Partners in Health and Haiti’s largest health-care provider outside the government. “They wanted [a] blood transfusion for him.” Members of his family were willing to donate blood, but it wasn’t safe enough for them to travel to the hospital.

He says that the hospital will stop if they don’t get fuel. “So we have to buy fuel at double the usual price.” Simple medical procedures can fall through even with fuel.

Source: ‘This is not a time to get sick,’ says a doctor in Haiti on the health-care crisis

The problem of internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince: the emergency cosutr of the Alliance for International Medical Action

“For example, every morning,” Pianigiani says, “we ask everyone to check that everything is OK before leaving [for work] and if attacks start or there are some uncertainty or some issues, we ask them to go back to their families and seek shelter.”

Carlatta Pianigiani is an emergency cosutr with the Alliance for International Medical Action, a nongovernmental group that provides emergency medical care in conflict zones with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. She is based in Port-au-Prince. Those who are displaced “are living in camps. They are living in schools, in classrooms, in governmental buildings. They are sleeping. Sometimes they have two latrines at the same time.

All of this is happening at a time when 362,000 people are internally displaced and gangs are using rape and sexual violence as a weapon to instill fear. This toxic combination translates to skyrocketing medical needs.

And while rural areas may be a bit safer from gang activity, there are other issues. Because gangs are guarding both primary roadways that leave the capital to the north and the south and drivers risk being robbed and killed or kidnapped, drugs that are needed in rural areas are often stuck inside Port-au-Prince.