Guyana ready to “fully support” Haiti

Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 October 2022, 17:15 by Denis Chabrol

President Irfaan Ali said Guyana is poised to assist violence and cholera-stricken Haiti, even as the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was continuing to discuss any peacekeeping role.

“The humanitarian crisis there is immense now and we are ready to fully support…Cholera is on the rise. It’s just devastating to see what is going on there and the region is being assured of Guyana’s full support and commitment,” he said when asked by Demerara Waves Online News.

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for “armed” action against to slacken the grip that armed gangs have on a port where major fuel supplies enter that French-Creole speaking Caribbean nation. Dr Ally said that, for Guyana, “that meeting is ongoing now with CARICOM.” “You know that no country can go in bilaterally so we’re looking at a multilateral approach on this matter,” he added.

Following a meeting of the UN Security Council, there are ongoing discussions between CARICOM and a number of the players.

The President declined to state pointedly whether Guyana would be sending troops as part of a wider mission to restore order there . “Let’s not jump the gun. All the CARICOM States, we are very careful with how we handle the situation,” he said. Dr Ali noted that there were legal issues such as the aegis under which armed action would be taken because “the UN has not agreed to a peacekeeping force per se so you don’t have that umbrella as yet.”

The United States and Mexico are preparing a joint resolution that would authorise an international mission to improve security in Haiti whose crisis has been deepened by rising fuel prices after government removed a subsidy.

Guyana Defence Force soldiers had been deployed to Haiti in the past as part of a United Nations-sanctioned peacekeeping mission.

Al Jazeera has reported that a weeks-long gang blockade of the Varreux terminal in Port-au-Prince has led to critical shortages of fuel and water and complicated efforts to respond to a dangerous outbreak of cholera.

“It’s an absolutely nightmarish situation for the population of Haiti, especially in Port-au-Prince,” Guterres was quoted as saying.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry this month asked the international community to help set up a “specialised armed force” to quell the violence, which has worsened in the power vacuum created by the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.