The government’s failure to halt the bloodshed has spawned a vigilante movement called “Bwa Kale”.
By Tom Phillips and Harold Isaac
The most severe humanitarian crisis in the Americas has taken yet another dramatic turn after Haiti’s most powerful gang boss took to the streets to call for an armed uprising to overthrow the country’s unpopular prime minister.
Jimmy Chérizier, a police officer turned gang lord nicknamed “Barbecue”, issued his call to arms on Tuesday, as reports suggested the US was preparing to ask the UN security council to approve a Kenya-led intervention designed to address the Caribbean country’s escalating security crisis.
“We are launching the fight to overturn Ariel Henry’s government in any way,” Chérizier said of Haiti’s prime minister, who took power after president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021. “Our fight will be with weapons,” the gang leader told Reuters.
Haiti has been spiraling deeper into turmoil since Moïse was murdered at his Port-au-Prince residence. Since then, rifle-toting gangs have commandeered up to 90% of Haiti’s capital and there has been an explosion of killings, kidnappings and sexual violence, turning much of the city into a no-go zone. Millions are struggling to eat, partly as a result of gang checkpoints blocking food supply routes.
From comparatively safer hillside neighbourhoods, “you can see the city [below] burning … You see houses burning. You see all the gunshots – even during the day,” said Diego Da Rin, a Haiti specialist from the International Crisis Group who recently visited the country.
“It’s really difficult to be there – and it’s really difficult to leave as well, when you’re in the plane just [thinking]: ‘I can leave – but most people who live here don’t have a choice,’” Da Rin added. “[The police] are completely outgunned by the gangs right now.”
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