Journal of Haiti and the Americas
Haiti: Artibonite, gang issue
Audio 7:30 p.m.
Gonaïves, capital of the Artibonite department in northern Haiti, has been plagued by clashes between gangs in recent weeks.
(Illustrative image).
AFP - HECTOR RETAMAL
By: Mikael Ponge
3 mins
Located north of the capital Port-au-Prince, the Artibonite department has been the scene of violent clashes between rival criminal gangs in recent weeks.
An agricultural territory, breadbasket of the country, which has become strategic for gangs.
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If we talk
daily about the terror that gangs reign in Port-au-Prince
and in the metropolitan area of the Haitian capital, armed gangs also clash in Artibonite, a strategic department in the north of the country.
At least 20 people were killed in Petite-Rivière-de-l'Artibonite, during clashes between the gangs of the base "Gran Grif" and Jean Denis, reports Fritznel Joasil, executive director of ACPRODDH, an organization for the defense of human rights, in the daily newspaper
Le Nouvelliste
.
If this territory has become a gang zone, it is because
"
the Artibonite concentrates 90
% of the country's hydroelectric production, 50
% of the surface area of irrigated land in Haiti
",
explains agronomist and university professor Jean Andrew Victor.
“
For this reason, it is the breadbasket of the republic
”
, according to him
.
Moreover, the Artibonite is
"
the only place in the country where you can ransom the peasants, they are in large numbers and they have a certain purchasing power with the cultivation of rice
",
explains the specialist who specifies that the department, for all these reasons, "
serves as a rear base for the gangs of Port-au-Prince
".
Pope Francis in Canada for a “
penitential pilgrimage
”
The pope arrived on Sunday July 24, 2022 in Edmonton, Canada, the first leg of his tour which will take him to Quebec and Nunavut until Friday.
This “
penitential pilgrimage
” is punctuated by encounters with indigenous peoples, victims of the abuses of the Catholic Church.
Francis could formulate an official pardon for the 150,000 children separated from their families and forcibly placed in orphanages between 1880 and 1996. Upon his arrival, the pope met with survivors.
This Monday, the sovereign pontiff will meet the parishioners of a church in Edmonton.
He must also visit the former Ermineskin boarding school in the Maskwacis community south of the city.
This is where he could make a request for forgiveness.
Excuses that some of the survivors of these boarding schools do not want.
►
To read also
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The Pope visits Indigenous communities in Canada: "I want more than an apology"
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A violent fire that has ravaged the Californian forest since last weekend continued to spread this Sunday, causing the evacuation of thousands of people, in a context of strong heat peaks affecting tens of millions of Americans in all the United States.
The fire,
dubbed "Oak Fire," is spreading across Mariposa County
, near Yosemite National Park and its famous giant sequoias.
Favored by "
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", winds and rising temperatures, the fire was fought by some 2,000 firefighters, supported by 17 helicopters.
It burned at least 6,313 hectares of forest, destroyed ten properties, damaged five others and threatened several thousand.
And on the front page of the Journal de la 1ère:
The Hospital and University Center of Guadeloupe is calling for reinforcements.
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Haiti
Canada
United States
Overseas
Pope Francis
On the same subject
Haiti: Clashes between gangs have left at least 191 dead according to a new report
world religions
The Pope in Canada to ask forgiveness of indigenous peoples
Oak Fire continues to spread near Yosemite Park, California