For most Haitians, it is not just poverty that makes life difficult. The island state is also struggling with gang crime, and lately the bands have gained more and more power.
Those who know the country believe that this is one of the reasons why dozens of people lost their lives in the explosion in the country’s second largest city on Tuesday last week.
– We have a population living in extreme poverty, says Marie-Rosy Auguste Ducena, an activist who works for the human rights organization RNDDH in Port-au-Prince.
– This is what made people go out and get petrol from the tanker. They thought they could sell the petrol on, she tells the news agency AFP.
Did not listen to warning
Deputy Mayor Patrick Almonor in the city of Cap-Haïtien says that the tanker driver swerved to avoid hitting a motorcycle taxi. As a result, he lost control of the car, which then overturned.
– The driver immediately informed people that it was dangerous, but they did not listen to him, Ducena says.
– Instead, they went to look for hammers and other tools to be able to get holes in the tank and take the gas.
She believes that people’s lack of schooling means that many are not aware that they have to handle petroleum products carefully.
– There is a relentless lack of education, she states.
– TRAGIC: A woman is buried after she died in hospital as a result of the injuries she sustained Photo: Odelyn Joseph / AP
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Severe burns
The blast killed 62 people at the scene, while at least ten others died of burns shortly after arriving at the hospital. Since then, another 18 injured have lost their lives.
Several days after the explosion, close to 50 burn-injured people were still hospitalized around the country. For several of them, the condition is still critical, and the death toll may rise even more.
Due to high poverty among Haiti’s residents, petrol is almost considered gold, according to the deputy mayor of Cap-Haïtien.
– And it was free. As a result, the death toll was higher, says Almonor.
He says that some of the victims were at home, but most had gathered around the tanker because they wanted to secure some of the petrol. Then it exploded, and the street was transformed into an inferno, where buildings and cars were on fire.
– INJURY: Several have suffered severe burns over large parts of the body Photo: Odelyn Joseph / AP
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Presidentdrap
According to the World Bank, 60 percent of Haiti’s 11 million people live below the poverty line. The country has also been hit by several major natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, as well as a very unstable political situation.
In July this year, the country’s president Jovenel Moïse was killed when gunmen stormed the presidential residence. The wife was injured, but survived by playing dead. The murder has not yet been solved. The country’s attorney general wanted to charge Prime Minister Ariel Henry with the murder, but was fired instead.
Just weeks after the killing, the country was hit by another earthquake, which killed hundreds of people and left buildings and other infrastructure in ruins.
Kidnapped drivers
In recent years, the shortage of petrol and gas has been frequent as the authorities look and have often lacked money to pay suppliers.
However, the crisis took on a whole new dimension in September when criminal gangs took control of the roads leading to the country’s three oil terminals.
Usually they have contented themselves with operating in the slums of the capital Port-au-Prince, but now they were suddenly in a position to paralyze traffic and carry out actions with consequences for the whole country.
More than ten tankers were hijacked, after which the gangs demanded large sums to release the drivers.
– DESPAIR: Several have lost family members Photo: Odelyn Joseph / AP
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Blocks important main road
Since then, the gangs’ strangulation has meant that all vehicles in and out of the capital risk being stopped by hijackers.
There are two main roads between Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien, but after a powerful criminal gang took control of the most passable, freight transport has been forced to use the road that passes through a mountain area.
“Sometimes bandits also block the road to the Central Plateau, and when that happens, no vehicles get to the capital,” says Almonor.
The deputy mayor complains about the centralization, which means that power and business are concentrated in the capital, which means that what happens in Port-au-Prince has major consequences for the rest of the country.
– We are dependent on Port-au-Prince because we do not have our own oil terminal, even though we have a port here, he says.
– UNREST: There is currently great unrest in Haiti Photo: Rodrigo Abd / AP
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The black market is growing
The lack of supplies means that people instead use the black market to secure hoarding products, either for use in their own business or to resell.
Cap-Haiti is located in northern Haiti and has 300,000 inhabitants. The distance to Port-au-Prince is about 20 miles, and the trip takes about six hours.
Voluntary organizations fear that no one has learned from the tanker explosion, and that something similar will happen again.
“People who slept in their homes, died of burns, and injured survivors are struggling to get health care because there are no specialized hospitals,” Ducena said.
– Should we just have these three days of mourning, just mourn our dead, count corpses and then continue as before? she asks.
– We cry, we do nothing afterwards, and then we wait for the next disaster, Ducena states.
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