Haitians Search for Peace Amid Gang Violence

TaiwanPlus News

The United Nations-backed security mission to Haiti is set to end in less than a month. But for Haitians enduring the violence, safety is not coming fast enough.

Transcript

00:00A perilous road to safety, but for residents of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, it is

00:08their only option.

00:11Violent gangs have taken over, controlling an estimated 80 percent of the city, including

00:16the major roadways in and out.

00:20The only escape is this rocky path through the mountains.

00:33Port-au-Prince has been under a state of emergency since March, now expanded to include the entire

00:39Caribbean nation.

00:41The United Nations estimates over half a million people have been displaced from the violence.

00:48And almost half the population of 11 million is going hungry.

00:53The country's newly formed government is working to restore order.

00:57But as gangs extend their reach, Haitians have had enough.

01:14Visiting the country during this turmoil, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met

01:18with Haiti's interim Prime Minister, Gary Coney, and announced an additional 45 million

01:24U.S. dollars of humanitarian aid.

01:27Blinken also called for a U.N.-backed security mission here to be extended, a deployment

01:32of several hundred Kenyan police officers meant to leave the country next month.

01:37The mission itself needs to be renewed, and that's what we're working on right now.

01:43But we also want to make sure that we have something that is reliable, that's sustainable,

01:50and we'll look at every option to do that.

01:55So a peacekeeping operation would be one such option.

01:59I think there are others.

02:01For those displaced by the violence, the security mission and the visit from Blinken are seen

02:06as ineffective.

02:07The U.S. is not interested in the security mission, the U.S. is not interested in the

02:14security mission.

02:15The U.S. is not interested in the renewal of the security mission, because what's in

02:18it for us?

02:19We don't have anything.

02:20We don't have anything.

02:21We don't have anything.

02:22We don't have anything.

02:23We don't have anything.

02:24We don't have anything.

02:25We don't have anything.

02:26We don't have anything.

02:27We don't have anything.

02:28We don't have anything.

02:29We don't have anything.

02:30We don't have anything.

02:31We don't have anything.

02:32We don't have anything.

02:33We don't have anything.

02:34We don't have anything.

02:35We don't have anything.

02:37Rather than wait for order to be restored, residents of Port-au-Prince have turned to

02:42the mountains, far from the gangs, police and geopolitical players.

02:47The path may be perilous, and there is no guarantee of safety on the other side.

02:53But for these Haitians desperate for peace, it's the only way forward.

02:58James Linden Harrell-Hughes for Taiwan Plus.

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