Haitians demand new leaders find swift solutions to gang violence

(26 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Port-au-Prince, Haiti - 26 April 2024
1. Various of traffic
2. Various of rubbish in the street
3. SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Joseph Ferdinand, Taxi Driver:
“The first thing that the presidential council must do is look into the security problem. Insecurity has made this country unlivable. We are going crazy running everywhere and nowhere to go. After security, they need to resolve the hunger, people are living in misery. Misery is destroying the population, look at all that trash over there.”
4. Various of street vendor preparing food
5. SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Lenel Merilice, street vendor:
“I hope to see the members of the presidential council come together to restore security. So that the country becomes functional, that is what I want to see.”
7. Mid of car mechanic Jean Marc Daniel arriving at a street kitchen
8. SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Jean Marc Daniel, car mechanic:
“Well, it is insecurity that brought us to where we are today. A country without security is a country where we cannot do anything.”
9. Various of cars, street, people, city
10. Various of people and vendors in street markets
STORYLINE:
It has been only a day since the transitional presidential council was installed in Haiti, and the list of demands on the Caribbean nation's new leaders is rapidly growing.
Haitians want security, food, jobs - and they want them now.
The members of the council, tasked with bringing political stability to Haiti are under immense pressure to produce quick results, despite a deep-seated crisis that has been years in the making.
Making Haiti safer is a priority.
More than 2,500 people were killed or injured from January to March alone, and more than 90,000 have fled the capital of Port-au-Prince so far this year amid relentless gang violence.
Gangs have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that has been closed since early March, and stormed the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
The nine-member council acknowledged the challenges it faces after being sworn in Thursday at the National Palace amid gunfire in the streets.
How exactly the council plans to tackle the daunting tasks is unclear and no strategy to quell gang violence has been publicly announced.
In the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince every person the AP journalists talked to named security as the top priority.
Without it, people say, it is impossible to even think about resuming a normal life.
AP video shot by Pierre Luxama
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