Haiti gang boss hints at possible ceasefire – but warns foreign forces they will be treated as ‘invaders’
The head of one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs, and the de-facto head of a consortium of gangs that have brought Port-au-Prince to a standstill has told Sky News he would consider a ceasefire and talks on the political future of the country if they were included.
But Jimmy Cherizier, known universally as “Barbecue”, has predicted that more violence is imminent, adding that a recent halt in the fighting is purely a technical pause.
“There is nothing calm, but when you’re fighting you have to know when to advance and when to retreat,” he said.
“I think every day that passes we are coming up with a new strategy so we can advance, but there’s nothing calm.
“In the days that are coming things will get worse than they are now…” he told me sitting in an alleyway in his stronghold.
Political parties in Haiti, overseen by CARICOM, the Caribbean economic union of countries, are trying to form a transitional council that will take over the running of the country after the Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is currently in the United States, stands down.
Cherizier has said they “respect CARICOM a lot” but dismissed the process as unrepresentative of the needs of the ordinary people and a smokescreen to allow “corrupt politicians” and what he calls “corrupt oligarchs” to continue running the country.
The only way the situation can move on, he insisted, is if the peace process includes him and his gang coalition.
“If the international community comes with a detailed plan where we can sit together and talk, but they do not impose on us what we should decide, I think that the weapons could be lowered,” he added.
“We don’t believe in killing people and massacring people, we believe in dialogue, we have weapons in our hand and it’s with the weapons that we must liberate this country.”
Jimmy Cherizier speaks to Sky’s Stuart Ramsay
Read more:
What is happening in Haiti?
Vigilantes defending Haiti neighbourhood ‘tooth and nail’
A vortex of violence and poverty
Haiti has been paralysed by weeks of violence that has seen whole districts burnt to the ground, tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes, while murder, rape, and gun battles are a daily occurrence.
Port-au-Prince is 80% controlled by the gangs and normal life has virtually stopped.
To get to Barbecue we were guided down a now-deserted motorway pockmarked with burnt out sections of tarmac and abandoned and burnt-out vehicles.
It’s one of the main economic highways in the capital, and now totally under his control.
We were told that their snipers were watching us, and to drive slowly, and follow our guide’s every move.
We then turned off the main road and drove through a warren of backstreets, to a meeting point where we were greeted by a group of armed gunmen in balaclavas.
One of the main economic highways in the capital is now totally under Barbecue’s control
I’ve met Barbecue before, and I knew where we were going, but everything was different this time – that deserted highway was free flowing the last time I was here. Now it is a barricaded battlefield.
Another difference is that last time we met, he wasn’t too keen on us filming his armed guards, but now he positively wanted us to see them, and was carrying two weapons himself.
The reason is simple. He is at war, and he wants the authorities and his enemies here to know that it is a war.
He’s not responsible for all the violence sweeping across Haiti’s capital but, be under no doubt, he is at the centre of it and his fighters are never far away.
Barbecue sees himself as a revolutionary for the people, and he rails against corrupt politicians and oligarchs.
He has dismissed all the efforts under way here to form a transitional council that will govern Haiti.
“We believe in dialogue, we are for dialogue, but this political class that is here now is not here for dialogue, the reason is that they don’t carry Haiti in their hearts the same way that we do.
“The political class say they are excluding bandits, that men with guns are not in it, but this is a way for them to revive the same system, because the system has reached its end.
Stuart Ramsay eyewitness Haiti turmoil
“The divide between rich and poor is too vast, in the whole world there is a divide between rich and poor, but the way it’s done in Haiti is indecent,” he told me.
He suggested though, that he is open to some form of negotiations as long as they’re represented.
“We are ready for all solutions as long as Haitians are at the table, we are ready to sit and talk with everyone, because we are not proud of what is happening in this country…”
I asked him if he accepts that if they want to have talks, they’ll have to put down their weapons.
“The weapons will be lowered when they need to be lowered,” he replied.
“At the moment we haven’t got to the point where we should put down our weapons, because the people here don’t want to listen to reason.
“We have been hearing about dialogue for more than two or three years.
“We’ve been asking for everyone to sit down and talk to the people with guns, and no one heard us. Today we have reached the point where we are advancing and our objective is clear.”
Surrounded by well-armed gunmen, Barbecue took me for a walk around some of his newly acquired territory.
He took us through the roadblocks of buses they’ve put in place to stop police raids here.
He says the last major police assault was eight days ago and he’s not sure when there will be another.
Inside his territory, despite the poverty, life is relatively peaceful and organised.
Barbecue said we should see food distribution taking place inside his community.
And unlike what we have seen in other parts of Port-au-Prince, the queues for the food Barbecue gets brought in are orderly.
People queue for food in Barbecue’s territory
The essential difference is the people waiting in line know there’s enough food and water supplies for the whole community. They just need to wait.
The issue here though is whether a poor area, controlled by a gang boss, is getting better treatment than poor areas controlled by the government.
This is the source of Barbecue’s strength.
Cherizier, a former policeman, sees himself as a sort of revolutionary freedom fighter in the style of Che Guevara, and a Robin Hood type figure for his community.
For much of the international community though, and many in Haiti, he is a criminal gang leader.
Watched on by his well-armed and battle-hardened soldiers, Barbecue says plans for an international force led by Kenya to impose peace in Port-au-Prince will lead to more violence, whoever is in charge.
When I met him last in January 2023 I asked about foreign forces. He said at the time innocent people would die if they came in. I wondered if he still held the same view.
“I believe that just like I said, if the Kenyans come, first of all they will come to commit massacres in the poor communities, because the oligarchs and the corrupt politicians are going to tell them where to go on the pretext that they’re coming to eliminate gangs and bandits, and they’re going to enter the poor communities to commit massacres,” he said.
“We at this moment who have weapons in our hands are not going to allow this.
“It’s evolving. If the Kenyan military or Kenyan police come, whatever, I will consider them as aggressors, we will consider them as invaders, and we do not have to collaborate with any invaders that have come to walk over our independence.”
Barbecue is not only leader of the G9 group of gangs, he is now also the leader of Viv Ansanm (Living Together) revolutionary group, a newly formed gang alliance.
He said he’s trying to reign the more violent gangs in, and that they need to change their ways or risk losing their revolution.
“Viv Ansanm is a collective leadership – I can’t force them. If I use force against them it will be an endless fight, we will never be able to accomplish what we want to against the people who have created this situation,” he explained.
“But every day every day we talk seven or eight times on the phone, and each time we hear on the news that they kidnap someone or something bad is done.
“I always call the guys on the phone to see how together we can correct this, and even they who have been doing it are starting to be conscious that this is bad and that they’re not going to do it anymore.
“But me I just assure myself that I continue talking to them for them to stop and not continue to do it.
“I think in time we will find a solution with a country where there are no kidnappings, without raping and killing people, and in the end we will chase the corrupt politicians and the corrupt oligarchs out of the country.”
Cherizier flies a kite
As we were getting ready to leave Cherizier paused to fly a kite.
It’s an early Easter tradition here. He laughed and joked with his people. He’s an unlikely hero but here in his territory he is.
In truth no ordinary society needs people like Barbecue, but Haiti isn’t normal.
How or when it achieves normality is impossible to predict.
World
‘The future is in our hands’ scientists say, as 2024 becomes first year to pass 1.5C global warming threshold
Last year was the warmest on record, the first to breach a symbolic threshold, and brought with it deadly impacts like flooding and drought, scientists have said.
Two new datasets found 2024 was the first calendar year when average global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale.
The record heat has not only has real-world implications, as it contributed to deadly flooding in Spain and vicious drought in places like Zambia in southern Africa.
It is also highly symbolic.
Countries agreed in the landmark Paris Agreement to limit warming ideally to 1.5C, because after that the impacts would be much more dangerous.
The news arrives as California battles “hell on earth” wildfires, suspected to have been exacerbated by climate change.
And it comes as experts warn support for the Paris goals is “more fragile than ever” – with Donald Trump and the Argentinian president poised to row back on climate action.
What caused 2024 record heat – and is it here to stay?
Friends of the Earth called today’s findings from both the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change service and the Met Office “deeply disturbing”.
The “primary driver” of heat in the last two years was climate change from human activity, but the temporary El Nino weather phenomenon also contributed, they said.
The breach in 2024 does not mean the world has forever passed 1.5C of warming – as that would only be declared after several years of doing so, and warming may slightly ease this year as El Nino has faded.
But the world is “teetering on the edge” of doing so, Copernicus said.
Prof Piers Forster, chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, called it a “foretaste of life at 1.5C”.
Dr Gabriel Pollen, Zambia’s national coordinator for disasters, said “no area of life and the economy is untouched” by the country’s worst drought in more than 100 years.
Six million people face starvation, critical hydropower has plummeted, blackouts are frequent, industry is “decimated”, and growth has halved, he said.
Paris goal ‘not obsolete’
Scientists were at pains to point out it is not too late to curb worse climate change, urging leaders to maintain and step up climate action.
Professor Forster said temporarily breaching 1.5C “does not mean the goal is obsolete”, but that we should “double down” on slashing greenhouse gas emissions and on adapting to a hotter world.
The Met Office said “every fraction of a degree” still makes a difference to the severity of extreme weather.
The California fires were whipped up by strong, dry winds and likely worsened by climate change. Pic: Reuters
Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo added: “The future is in our hands: swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate”.
Climate action is ‘economic opportunity’
Copernicus found that global temperatures in 2024 averaged 15.10°C, the hottest in records going back to 1850, making it 1.60°C above the pre-industrial level during 1850-1900.
The Met Office’s data found 2024 was 1.53C above pre-industrial levels.
The figures are global averages, which smooth out extremes from around the world into one number. That is why it still might have felt cold in some parts of the world last year.
Greenpeace campaigner Philip Evans said as “the world’s most powerful climate denier” Donald Trump returns to the White House, others must “take up the mantle of global climate leadership”.
The UK’s climate minister Kerry McCarthy said the UK has been working with other countries to cut global emissions, as well as greening the economy at home.
“Not only is this crucial for our planet, it is the economic opportunity of the 21st century… tackling the climate crisis while creating new jobs, delivering energy security and attracting new investment into the UK.”
World
Picture shows baby girl moments after birth on packed migrant dinghy heading for Canary Islands
Photographs have captured the moments after a baby girl was born on a packed migrant dinghy heading for the Canary Islands.
The small boat was carrying 60 people and had embarked from Tan-Tan – a Moroccan province 135 nautical miles (250km) away.
One image shows the baby lying on her mother’s lap as other passengers help the pair.
The boat’s passengers – a total of 60 people, including 14 women and four children – were rescued by a Spanish coastguard ship.
Coastguard captain Domingo Trujillo said: “The baby was crying, which indicated to us that it was alive and there were no problems, and we asked the woman’s permission to undress her and clean her.
“The umbilical cord had already been cut by one of her fellow passengers. The only thing we did was to check the child, give her to her mother and wrap them up for the trip.”
Coastguards rescued all 60 people aboard the boat. Pic: Salvmento Maritimo/Reuters
The mother and baby were taken for medical checks and treated with antibiotics, medical authorities said.
Dr Maria Sabalich, an emergency coordinator of the Molina Orosa University Hospital in Lanzarote, said: “They are still in the hospital, but they are doing well.”
When they are discharged from hospital, the pair will be moved to a humanitarian centre for migrants, a government official said.
They will then most likely be relocated to a reception centre for mothers and children on another of the Canary Islands, they added.
Thousands of migrants board boats attempting to make the perilous journey from the African coast to the Spanish Canaries each year.
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In 2024, a total of 9,757 people died on the route, according to Spanish migration charity Walking Borders.
Mr Trujillo said: “Almost every night we leave at dawn and arrive back late.
“This case is very positive, because it was with a newborn, but in all the services we do, even if we are tired, we know we are helping people in distress.”
A real-life drama is unfolding just outside Hollywood. Ferocious wildfires have ballooned at an “alarming speed”, in just a matter of hours. Why?
What caused the California wildfires?
There are currently three wildfires torching southern California. The causes of all three are still being investigated.
The majority (85%) of all forest fires across the United States are started by humans, either deliberately or accidentally, according to the US Forest Service.
But there is a difference between what ignites a wildfire and what allows it to spread.
However these fires were sparked, other factors have fuelled them, making them spread quickly and leaving people less time to prepare or flee.
The main culprit so far is the Santa Ana winds.
Follow live: Malibu residents told to get ready to flee
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LA residents face ‘long and scary night ahead’
What are Santa Ana winds?
So-called Santa Ana winds are extreme, dry winds that are common in LA in colder winter months.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection warned strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity are whipping up “extreme wildfire risks”.
Winds have already topped 60mph and could reach 100mph in mountains and foothills – including in areas that have barely had any rain for months.
It has been too windy to launch firefighting aircraft, further hampering efforts to tackle the blazes.
These north-easterly winds blow from the interior of Southern California towards the coast, picking up speed as they squeeze through mountain ranges that border the urban area around the coast.
They blow in the opposite direction to the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific Ocean into the area.
The lack of humidity in the air parches vegetation, making it more flammable once a fire is started.
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Wildfires spread as state of emergency declared
The ‘atmospheric blow-dryer’ effect
The winds create an “atmospheric blow-dryer” effect that will “dry things out even further”, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The longer the extreme wind persists, the drier the vegetation will become, he said.
“So some of the strongest winds will be at the beginning of the event, but some of the driest vegetation will actually come at the end, and so the reality is that there’s going to be a very long period of high fire risk.”
What role has climate change played?
California governor Gavin Newsom said fire season has become “year-round in the state of California” despite the state not “traditionally” seeing fires at this time of year – apparently alluding to the impact of climate change.
Scientists will need time to assess the role of climate change in these fires, which could range from drying out the land to actually decreasing wind speeds.
But broadly we know that climate change is increasing the hot, dry weather in the US that parches vegetation, thereby creating the fuel for wildfires – that’s according to scientists at World Weather Attribution.
But human activities, such as forest management and ignition sources, are also important factors that dictate how a fire spreads, WWA said.
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Pic: Reuters
Southern California has experienced a particularly hot summer, followed by almost no rain during what should be the wet season, said Professor Alex Hall, also from UCLA.
“And all of this comes on the heels of two very rainy years, which means there is plenty of fuel for potential wildfires.
“These intense winds have the potential to turn a small spark into a conflagration that eats up thousands of acres with alarming speed – a dynamic that is only intensifying with the warmer temperatures of a changing climate.”
The flames from a fire that broke out yesterday evening near a nature reserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA spread so quickly that staff at a care home had to push residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a car park.
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