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Context

Humanitarian crisis in Haiti as the Caribbean’s most populous country may have fallen to armed gangs.

Details

Haiti

• Haiti occupies the western third of island of Hispaniola, which is the second-largest island in the Caribbean Sea. A mountainous country, its name means “high land” in the local Taino language.
• The climate is generally tropical but is more temperate in the highlands.
• Due to the rapid clearing of Haiti’s forests, much of the landscape is now barren.
• Haiti has two distinct peninsulas, the northern and southern, separated by the Golfe de la Gonave.
• Due to its location along the boundary of the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates, Haiti is prone to seismic activity, including earthquakes.
• Hurricanes and flash floods occur periodically, placing pressure on Haiti’s infrastructure and population.
• Capital: Port-au-Prince
• Area: 27,800 sq km
• Population:3 million
• Languages: French, Haitian Creole.

A country in turmoil

Historical events

• The country visited by Christopher Columbus during his first voyage in Columbus founded the first European settlement in the Americas, La Navidad (‘The Nativity’ in Spanish), in Haiti.
• The area known today as Haiti ultimately came under France, as its colony of Saint-Domingue.
• Haiti later became the first independent country of Latin America and the Caribbean, the first free black republic in the world and the second republic in the Western Hemisphere after the US.
• This happened as a result of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, who did not live to see a free Haiti, although he set in motion its eventual independence.
• The country was forced by France to pay 150 million francs in the immediate aftermath of its freedom as ‘reparations to French slaveholders’. It took Haiti 122 years to pay the debt.
• In the 20th century, the US occupied the country for 19 years and continued to meddle in its internal affairs thereafter by allegedly supporting the Duvalier Dynasty of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier and overthrowing Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Recent Developments

• The country has still not recovered from the 2010 earthquake. A string of unpopular leaders have held power since 2010 and none has run the course. They also maintained armed gangs as their private militia which then turned rogue, giving rise to the gangs that have now reportedly overtaken Haiti.
• In 2021, the Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his bedroom. His successor, Ariel Henry, can now be overthrown at any moment, according to The Guardian.
• The unrest has seen 362,000 Haitians internally displaced — more than half of them children, the International Organization for Migration stated on March 9. More than 160,000 people are currently displaced in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone.

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