Haiti unrest fuels fear, frustration in tight-knit Haitian diasporas
Al Jazeera
Despite myriad challenges, Haitians in US and Canada say they remain hopeful of a better future for the Caribbean nation.
Montreal, Canada – Marjorie Villefranche has never experienced anything like it.
For the past six months, the head of Maison d’Haiti (Haiti House), a community centre in Montreal’s St-Michel neighbourhood, has received a wave of unsolicited messages from Haitians, begging for help to leave the country.
“‘Get us out of here please, we are starving, we are afraid, we are in the hands of mobs,’” Villefranche recalled of the messages that have poured in. “That never happened before.”
But this month, Haiti’s years-long crisis reached a new peak of political instability and violence.
Powerful armed groups have maintained their grip on the capital of Port-au-Prince after the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry last week and a shaky political transition is under way.
