‘We don’t kidnap, we don’t rape, we are fathers’: Haiti gang steps in to fill gap left by political failure
Arriving in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, the sheer scale of the poverty takes your breath away.
The streets are teeming with people but everywhere is shrouded in acrid smoke from piles of burning rubbish.
From the hills above Port-au-Prince, the city at times disappears in a fog of polluted air.
Wherever you walk people ask for money. Beggars trudge amid the crowds, unemployment is high and kidnapping of anyone – not just the rich – is a constant fear.
Gangs control 60% of the entire capital.
Much of the city is a no-go area, it’s simply too dangerous to venture inside the territory of the hundred-or-so gangs who operate here.
The police seem powerless to break the gangs down. They patrol in masks, carrying machine guns, but they do little to stop the crime rates that have rocketed in recent years.
Civil society has been crushed by political failure.
There are no elected officials in office; the country is run by politicians with no mandate and virtually no popular support.
A cholera outbreak is ripping through the slums of Port-au-Prince and millions are starving.
G9 is a coalition of gangs battling for supremacy in Port-au-Prince
A ‘no guns’ sign painted on the wall outside the health clinic in G9 territory
Haiti hasn’t really recovered from a devastating earthquake in 2010. I was there then and have returned in the intervening years.
Each time, I’m shocked that rather than getting better, it’s getting worse.
This country is falling apart and there is no safety net. The perverse reality is that the gangs have stepped in to fill the gap.
They offer work, protection, and security to those who welcome them.
I went to meet one of the leaders – he’s arguably the most famous, and he’s certainly the most vociferous.
Through a myriad of alleyways I was taken to his stronghold, surrounded by hooded armed men not wanting to show their faces on camera, I was introduced to the man known as ‘Barbecue’.
Barbecue is actually Jimmy Cherizier, a former policeman, now gang boss who is the acknowledged mouthpiece for a coalition of gangs called the G9.
Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier has survived four assassination attempts
Folklore says his sobriquet comes from the way he treated his victims; his friends say it’s because his mum ran a fried chicken stall and he’s had the nickname since he was a child.
Either way, as he took large diamond earrings out and passed his revolver to a gunman before we could film, I decided I didn’t want to find out which story was nearer the truth.
Barbecue requested we first sat down for an interview before he walked me around his territory, pretty much in the centre of Port-au-Prince.
He describes G9 as a group of armed young men and women with an ideology to change the lives of those who live in Haiti’s notorious slums.
The Caribbean country has been bad for years and there is now no elected controlling authority at all.
Police patrol but seem unable to break the gangs’ grip
Some countries are actively considering sending in foreign soldiers to impose order, but Barbecue warns it will only end in disaster.
“If we have an intervention, the international community is understanding enough to sit down and have a decent conversation with everyone,” he told me.
“But if they try to resolve it with guns, I think, many people in the slums could die and they will kill mostly innocent people, more than the guilty ones.”
Barbecue is a natural politician.
Many here question why at obvious moments of political vacuum he hasn’t ascended the steps of the presidential palace and taken control.
There were two separate opportunities, I am told, by well-connected commentators who believe he could’ve grasped power – but he didn’t.
‘Barbecue’ says G9 wants to improve the conditions of people in the slums
The leader of G9 is constantly escorted by armed guards
He is sanctioned by the UK and its allies for “engaging in acts threatening the peace, security and stability of Haiti”.
“I would like for one person to prove what they are accusing me of,” Barbecue told me. “I am a victim of a bunch of lies.”
Amongst the Haitian elite there is a view that Barbecue is in fact the pawn of a higher power.
He denies this and says he’s a man of the people, and that G9 territory is home to 12 million people. “We took up guns to change the living conditions of those less fortunate in the slums, we said it’s to change their lives, we don’t use guns to kidnap people,” he insisted.
Barbecue’s G9 is not known to be part of the overwhelming number of kidnappings taking place in Haiti today.
“We don’t kidnap, and we don’t rape. We are all fathers, we have sisters, aunts, we have kids. I have a daughter myself – I could never allow rape to happen around me.
“We don’t kill for money, but we do have guns to defend ourselves, because we can’t let others kill us.”
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Midway through our chat, his guards a few metres up the road started messing about and laughing loudly, he was out of his seat in seconds.
His anger was clear as he told them to shut up in no uncertain terms. He returned to his seat and apologised.
For the hours we were with Barbecue he was constantly escorted by these machine-gun-toting guards.
He has survived four assassination attempts.
A man lights candles for police officers killed by armed gangs. Pic: Reuters
As we walked through his neighbourhood, people came out to greet him – some fist-pumping, others shaking his hand, many just staring.
He dispenses money and largesse. It’s hard to explain but this place is like a castle and inside Barbecue is the king.
He sees himself as a revolutionary fighting against the dark corruption of government and oligarch businessmen, but he is a gang leader. And his land – like all other gangs – is always under attack.
In some parts of his territory, his enemies are only one wall away.
We watched as he inspected his fighters manning the frontline barricades. Some are just breeze block walls with gaps for them to fire through.
In other streets, sheets and blankets are strung up across the roadway to obscure the view of enemy snipers. The last time I saw that was in Aleppo, Syria.
Make no mistake, Port-au-Prince is a war zone.
But the irony is, when we were filming, we were safer in the G9 gang’s territory than on most of the capital’s streets, where kidnapping, murder and rape are endemic. And that is something every single person lives with here every single day.
Pics: Dominique Van Heerden/Toby Nash/Reuters
World
Body of missing rabbi Zvi Kogan found in UAE – as Israeli PM says he was murdered in ‘antisemitic terror incident’
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
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The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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