Haiti's deep humanitarian, security crisis: US takes urgent action
Newsy
The country has faced a growing political crisis compounded by gang violence that was only inflamed after the assassination of its president in 2021.
One constant in recent years for Haiti's internal security environment has been its deterioration. What has been described as growing gang violence has wreaked havoc on swaths of the country, and is increasingly spreading to areas where people previously fled to escape the danger.
This week a proposed plan to install new leadership in the Caribbean island nation failed after political parties rejected the idea of creating a presidential council to manage a transition and select an interim prime minister, and a council of ministers to form a new route forward for the country.
Haiti's turmoil was only made worse after the assassination of its President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, sparking a worsening constitutional crisis there.
On Thursday the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm diplomat Dennis Hankins to the post of ambassador to Haiti, filling the position for the first time in nearly 2 1/2 years. Hankins will travel to Port-au-Prince to work on trying to sort out years of political and social upheaval.
In 2019, the United Nations ended a 15-year peacekeeping mission in Haiti that began after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Thousands and thousands of international NGOs had been giving foreign aid to the country to support its social service needs, but the end of the U.N. mission dissolved much of those aid efforts causing even more strife for the small nation located under 1,000 nautical miles from Florida's shores.
