During Monday’s clashes between protesters and police in Haitian cities, at least one woman reportedly died.
As anti-government demonstrations turned into looting, police confronted the protesters.
As gang violence has grown out of control and interfered with the delivery of food and gasoline, resentment has been building to a boiling point.
Ariel Henry, the prime minister, has requested assistance from abroad, but some Haitians have criticized the request as foreign meddling.
Protesters in Port-au-Prince, the capital, built flaming tire barriers and hurled stones at police, who responded by firing tear gas. A hotel was then looted by several demonstrators.
A demonstrator claimed to have been shot by security personnel to AFP: “It is a crime that the police have committed. No danger was posed by this young girl. She was murdered to fulfill her wish to live honorably.”
The event has not yet been addressed by the police.
Additionally, there were demonstrations at Cap-Haitien on Haiti’s north coast and in Gonaives, a city in the country’s west, where protesters seized a courthouse.
Many of those protesting in the streets on Monday, according to local media, were upset with the prime minister’s call for the deployment of foreign armed forces in Haiti, which they view as an “intervention in Haiti’s domestic affairs.”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Henry made a general request for foreign help. Two days later, the government gave him the go-ahead to request a “specialized armed force” from the international community.
Since then, Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, has demanded the immediate dispatch of a special international armed force to Haiti, although it is still unclear which nations would send personnel to make up this force or what its mission would be.
Since mercenaries assassinated President Jovenel Mose in July of last year, the situation in Haiti has drastically deteriorated.
The major petroleum facility in Haiti, Varreux, and important routes have been taken over by gangs. As a result of the suspension of gasoline and food deliveries, more and more Haitians are going without food.
Because of the looting of several warehouses owned by charities and humanitarian groups, the most vulnerable people now lack access to food and water.
Cholera, a bacterial disease typically carried through polluted water, is becoming more and more common as clean water becomes harder to come by.
