Widespread Terror
«There are toll booths installed at various strategic points in the country —connecting zones, municipalities and departments— that still exist in the eyes of the authorities, despite the fact that it is known that they have been installed by armed bandits», says Ducéna. At least 43 agents of the Haitian National Police (PNH), 7 soldiers of the Haitian Armed Forces (FADH), and 2 agents of what was the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) have been killed throughout the year in Haiti. Police infrastructure has recorded 10 attacks, and “armed bandits looted, robbed, and burned thousands of homes of the population,” adds the activist, recalling that more than 1.3 million people have been displaced in this country. The Civil Protection Directorate has registered 246 shelters due to insecurity, where “people live in the most absolute indignity,” said the activist.
Entire Families Disappeared
“Entire families have disappeared during the episodes of violence. There are families that have been completely stripped, especially those whose relatives have been kidnapped,” he affirmed. In his opinion, poverty only increases in areas where food cannot be transported because gang members do not allow it. “The bandits control the circulation of food products in the country, rape the women who transport them from one city to another and demand money from them to let the shipments pass,” he said. Ducena highlighted that the United Nations names the reality of the country: “These are terrorist crimes. Crimes against humanity”. “At least 20 operations with kamikaze drones have been carried out with very few results so far. No known bandit has been hit in these (police) operations, while, unfortunately, we record collateral damage, including small children,” he pointed out.
Women, the first victims
Ducena indicated that “hundreds of cases of rape have been reported, some of them collective, both in the episodes of violence and in the camps”, Ducena insisted. «Although the authorities have not yet shared the figures with us, we know that the number of girls and women who have contracted sexually transmitted diseases has skyrocketed», assured the director of the RNDHH, who recalled that many cases of unwanted pregnancies have also been registered. The victims “are women and girls totally destroyed physically and psychologically. Most of them are abandoned by their partners for having been victims of gang rapes, or are expelled from the communities where they lived for having suffered a rape,” he lamented. For the RNDDH, the holding of elections in the country is “very far away”, and it recalled that this has not happened for 10 years.“The Presidential Transition Council (CPT) is totally gone. The Government (Office of the Prime Minister) is also totally gone. They are destroying each other while the population is dying,” it argued.
