Haiti: “Only God Can Change This Place”

Fourteen dead bodies were found yesterday Monday in a wealthy Haitian suburb of Port-au-Prince, where gang members attacked at dawn.

An AFP photojournalist counted 14 bodies in Petion-Ville, a suburb of the capital. Two residents said at least ten people were killed, not knowing the circumstances of their deaths.

In addition to the morning’s murderous attack, a judge’s home was also attacked – a clear message to the country’s elites vying for power, according to the BBC.

Unicef ​​executive director Catherine Russell called the situation in Haiti “appalling” and likened the lawlessness to the apocalyptic film “Mad Max”.

The situation is heartbreaking

In this debacle, the UN has also estimated that, due to the closure of so many hospitals in the capital, around 3,000 pregnant women are at risk of giving birth without maternity care.

The BBC in a related report says: “We visited the maternity ward of the public hospital of Cap-Haitien. Baby Woodley’s first cries, just a day old, were the same as babies born anywhere: for food and comfort.

But like most children born there, he will grow up to find that these necessities are far from guaranteed in Haiti.

Lying in a nearby bed, Markinson Joseph was recovering from giving birth to a baby boy two days earlier. Through an interpreter, she told me she would take her baby out of the country altogether if she had the chance.

“But my husband and I don’t have the money to leave,” she said.

Dangerous situations

The same report continues with the testimony of Dr. Mardoche Clervil, an obstetrician at the hospital: “He showed us around the dark and empty wards and told us that the gangs’ control of the roads to and from Port-au-Prince made it difficult to find enough fuel to keep the hospital lights on or the ceiling fans running.

More importantly, it also hampers efforts to bring in the drugs and equipment they need.

He said pregnant women traveled from Port-au-Prince to give birth in the relative safety of Cap-Haitien.

“As you can see, we have enough beds and staff,” he said, pointing to the group of nurses and specialists behind him. “But quite often patients just can’t get to us, either because of their socioeconomic problems or because of the violence.”

For some women, this had dire consequences. Louisemanie was eight and a half months pregnant when she entered the hospital. By then, she had dangerously high blood pressure and lost the baby.”

The fight for survival

“In Port-au-Prince, Farah Oxima and her nine children were forced to leave their home in a violent gang-controlled neighborhood and move to another part of the city. They are just some of the more than 360,000 internally displaced people of the conflict.

A 39-year-old mother is fighting to provide for her children

As she filled plastic containers with water from a pipe in the street, the 39-year-old admitted she was struggling to secure the food and water her young children needed.

“I don’t know what to do, I see the country falling apart,” he said.

For her, the idea that a transitional council can impose some form of order or security in the short term seems downright impossible.

“Only God can change this place, because from where I sit I can’t see where any other change can come from,” the BBC report concludes.