‘I just got shot, I lost everything’: The families trapped in Haiti’s violent capital with nowhere to go

Published

2 years ago

March 23, 2024

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When it comes, the gang violence is lethal and nobody in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince knows when or where it will flare up next.

Thousands have been forced to leave their homes and those capable of leaving the city do so on buses and in cars, heading north away from the fighting.

But tens of thousands simply can’t get away.

They’re now living rough or in buildings that they have taken over.

A huge argument erupts outside the locked gates of Haiti’s communications ministry building.

Hundreds of families have moved in, and a group of their male family members strictly control who can and who cannot enter.

The gates are locked to keep the gangs outside, and getting in takes negotiation with these men.

They all have families camping in the ministry compound.

They tell us there are 1,956 people here.

Once inside we are faced with a rowdy queue of people waiting for a handout of meagre supplies of donated food.

There is hardly anything, but they are short of everything, so they’ll take whatever they can get.

The communications ministry building has become a sanctuary for people who have been forced out of their homes in the violence that is sweeping Port-au-Prince.

This is the only place they could find to give them some protection.

That they are in a government building abandoned by the authorities pretty much sums up the chaos here in Port-au-Prince.

Inside families with young children sleep anywhere they can find a space, while the elderly and sick are gathered in a courtyard in an area designated especially for them.

All they can do is sit and wait and hope that this gang uprising comes to an end.

In a room next to the courtyard people caught in the crossfire sit on the floors. Some have been shot multiple times.

They’re receiving no medical attention – any medicine they had has long since run out.

There is nowhere for them to go.

Bienvil Jovenè is one of the injured. He says he was caught up in a completely random attack.

“I don’t know where the bullet came from, I just got shot, I lost everything, and I can’t get home.”

His bullet wounds have not been treated properly, and he says he has no idea what to do.

Mr Jovenè can’t go home, he can’t go to hospital, and there is nobody to help.

Whole families are stuck in this government building alongside the wounded and the elderly.

There are children everywhere, some play under the desks that government ministers once sat at.

Lanié Eva has been forced to live here temporarily with her four children. I asked if we could meet her children as well, and she told me they’re on the street begging – she doesn’t know what else to do. They have to eat somehow.

This is desperate stuff.

“I have no choice,” she said. “I have to sleep here because I can’t sleep on the street it’s not safe, there’s no government helping us, we need someone to help us out, aside from God there is nobody to help us, and we are in misery here.”

On the streets of Port-au-Prince there is a tension, a feeling that anything could happen at any point. We drive towards the presidential palace, the scene of some of the fiercest battles between the gangs and the security forces.

It is eerily quiet, there are barricades everywhere, and a lone police vehicle guards the entrance. The nearby ministry of justice building is empty.

We don’t spend long in the area because we are told we are most likely being watched by the gangs who have crept onto these streets.

Across Port-au-Prince the signs of violence like burnt out cars and damaged roads are everywhere.

We drive to the edge of a major road that is all but deserted.

The road, with a lone stationary yellow school bus on it, signals the start of Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier’s gangland territory.

Nobody dares drive through it.

It’s in many ways a symbol of the gang’s power, and the problems Haiti faces.

The gang coalition led by Barbecue is threatening to increase its violence if Haiti’s politicians try to take back control.

It means that this always troubled country is descending into even more chaos.

World

COP30: Countries reach draft deal to help speed up climate action

Published

4 hours ago

November 22, 2025

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COP30: Countries reach draft deal to help speed up climate action

Countries attending COP30, the biggest climate meeting of the year, have agreed steps to help speed up climate action, according to a draft deal.

The meeting of leaders in the Brazilian city of Belem also saw them agree to reviewing related trade barriers and triple the money given to developing countries to help them withstand extreme weather events, according to the draft.

However, the summit’s president Correa do Lago said “roadmaps” on fossil fuels and forests would be published as there was no consensus on these issues.

The annual United Nations conference brings together world leaders, scientists, campaigners, and negotiators from across the globe, who agree on collective next steps for tackling climate change.

The two-week conference in the Amazon city of Belem was due to end at 6pm local time (9pm UK time) on Friday, but it dragged into overtime.

The standoff was between the EU, which pressed for language on transitioning away from fossil fuels, and the Arab Group of nations, including major oil exporter Saudi Arabia, which opposed it.

The impasse was resolved following all-night negotiations led by Brazil, negotiators said.

The European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, said on Saturday that the proposed accord was acceptable, even though the bloc would have liked more.

“We should support it because at least it is going in the right direction,” he said.

The Brazilian presidency scheduled a closing plenary session.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and about 80 countries, including the UK and coal-rich Colombia, had been pushing for a plan on how to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

This is a pledge all countries agreed to two years ago at COP28 – then did very little about since.

But scores of countries – including major oil and gas producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia – see this push as too prescriptive or a threat to their economies.

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World

Israel launches strikes on Gaza in further test of fragile ceasefire

Published

4 hours ago

November 22, 2025

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Israel launches strikes on Gaza in further test of fragile ceasefire

Israel says it has begun striking Hamas targets in Gaza, reportedly killing at least nine people, after what it called a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.

Local health authorities in Gaza said there had been three separate airstrikes, one hit a car in the densely populated Rimal neighbourhood, killing five people and wounding several others.

Shortly after the attack on the car, the Israeli air force hit two more targets in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

They said at least four people died when two houses were struck in Deir Al-Balah city and Nuseirat camp.

The Israeli military said there had been a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.

It claimed a gunman had crossed into Israeli-held territory after exploiting “the humanitarian road in the area through which humanitarian aid enters southern Gaza”.

A Hamas official rejected the Israeli military’s allegations as baseless, calling them an “excuse to kill”, adding the Palestinian group was committed to the ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli airstrikes are a further test of a fragile ceasefire with Hamas, which has held since 10 October following the two-year Gaza war.

Israel pulled back its troops, and the flow of aid into the territory has increased. But violence has not completely halted.

Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 316 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce.

Meanwhile, Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began and it has attacked scores of militants.

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Europe scrambles for counter-proposal to US-Russian plan for Ukraine

Published

6 hours ago

November 22, 2025

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Europe scrambles for counter-proposal to US-Russian plan for Ukraine

The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.

European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.

Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.

Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.

Ukraine war latest: Kyiv to discuss ending war in talks in Switzerland

The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.

One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.

Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.

“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.

“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”

On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.

Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.

“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.

“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.

“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.

Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.

There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.

But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.