The United Nations Security Council expressed concern on Wednesday about the “critical” situation in Haiti, where the leader of an alliance of gangs threatened to break out into “civil war” if the increasingly contested de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henri does not resign.

Gangs of criminals, who control most of the capital Port-au-Prince and roads leading to the rest of the territory, have been attacking strategic locations in the impoverished Caribbean country in recent days, including prisons, from which it is estimated that around three thousands of prisoners.

The Security Council convened in an emergency to discuss this escalation yesterday afternoon. “We had no choice, the situation is critical,” commented Ecuador’s ambassador Jose Javier de la Gasca López Dominguez after the meeting.

“We all share his concerns,” especially about the need to rapidly deploy an international armed police support force, added his Maltese counterpart Vanessa Fraser.

The area of ​​the Toussaint-Louverture international airport again turned into a theater of battles between security forces and gangs overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, a Haitian police source said.

The head of an influential gang alliance, Jimmy Serizier, or “Barbecue”, declared yesterday Tuesday that if the de facto Prime Minister Henri does not resign, and if the international community continues to support him, the country will be led “directly into a civil war that will cause genocide”.

“Either Haiti is going to be heaven for all of us, or hell for all of us,” added “Barbecue,” 46, a former police officer turned leader of a gang alliance known as the G9, who is being imposed on by heavily armed masked men. UN sanctions.

Amid a state of emergency and curfew, and with government services and schools suspended, many are fleeing the violence, carrying their few belongings, while others avoid going out unless absolutely necessary to make supplies.

“The situation is going from bad to worse. The police can do nothing to stop the attacks of the armed gangs. Only military force could help us in this situation,” a driver working in Port-au-Prince told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Acceleration”;

The thugs openly say they want to overthrow the prime minister, in power after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Ariel Henry was supposed to leave office at the beginning of February.

But in the country, without a president or parliament, elections have been held since 2016.

“Despite many contacts, we have not been able to reach a consensus between the government and various actors of the opposition, the private sector, civil society and religious organizations,” Guyana’s president Mohamed Irfan Ali, who is acting as the rotating president, said yesterday. Community of Caribbean States (CARICOM).

“They all know the price of failure,” he warned.

In Washington, American diplomacy pressed Ariel Henri to “accelerate the transition” to holding “free and fair elections” and called for “concessions in the interest of the Haitian people.”

However, “we are in no way pressuring the prime minister to resign”, the White House noted.

Failing to return to Haiti, Ariel Henry landed on Tuesday night in Puerto Rico after an official visit to Kenya, where he tried to derail the international armed force.

“There is no alternative” to this mission, given the “unbearable” situation in the country, declared the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.

“Unbelievable level” of violence

Due to violence, political crisis and multi-year drought, 5.5 million Haitians, in other words almost half the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance. But the amount foreseen in the UN appeal for donations — 674 million dollars for 2024 — has only been covered by 2.5%.

And this while the escalation in recent days has forced another 15,000 people to flee their homes in Port-au-Prince, according to the UN, which is distributing food and other basic necessities.

After months of hesitation, the Security Council gave the go-ahead in October to the deployment of a multinational force led by Kenya, which has offered to deploy 1,000 police. But its development is delayed, both because of a decision of the Kenyan justice and because of the glaring lack of funding.

On Friday, Nairobi and Port-au-Prince signed a bilateral agreement on the international force. However, it does not mention the date of its development either.

At the end of February, five other countries expressed their willingness to join the mission in the country where daily kidnappings are committed, snipers open fire from rooftops, sexual violence is carried out by gangs to instill fear…

In early January, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the “unbelievable level” of gang violence: the number of murders will more than double in 2023, reaching almost 5,000. At least 2,700 victims were civilians.