Fuel shortages, which have been going on for several days, have left Haitians with few transportation options and forced some businesses to close. Hospitals, which rely on generators to guarantee electricity due to constant blackouts, could also close.
The operation of the rTelecommunications companies in Haiti are severely affected due to the fuel shortage caused by the increasing control of gangs over the capital, professionals of the sector warned this Tuesday.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in ten years,” Maarten Boute, chief executive of the Digicel phone company, which covers 75% of the Haitian market, told AFP.
“Today we have 430 affected antennas out of 1,500 throughout the country, which hurts several hundred thousand customers,” he said.
The situation has increased pressure on a population already burdened by economic woes and a wave of gang kidnappings, including earlier this month that of a group of Canadian and American missionaries.
Jimmy “Barbacoa” Cherizier, leader of the gang coalition G9 in the metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, he said in a radio interview Monday night that he would guarantee the passage of fuel trucks if Henry left office.
“The areas under the control of the G9 are blocked for one reason only: we demand the resignation of Ariel Henry,” Cherizier said in an interview on Radio Mega Haiti.
“If Ariel Henry resigns at eight in the morning or eight-five we will unblock the road and all the trucks will be able to pass to get fuel.”
The statements show how gangs have assumed an increasingly political role following the assassination of the president in July. Jovenel Moïse. Cherizier has said that Henry should “answer questions” about his alleged link to the Moïse murder. Henry has denied any involvement.
Elections in Haiti were originally scheduled for November, but were called off after Henry last month sacked the election council, which critics had accused of being biased in favor of Moïse.
Henry has promised to appoint a new nonpartisan council that will set a new date.
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