Haiti at the mercy of armed gangs blocking the naval terminal of oil tankers: now there is no fuel and hospitals are closed

ROME (DIRE Agency) – Many hospitals in Haiti risk having to close due to fuel shortages. About 50,000 children aged zero to five may not receive essential care in the next four weeks. The alarm was raised by international humanitarian agencies and local organizations. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), many of the hospitals in the Caribbean country rely on fuel-powered generators due to the instability of the national electricity grid. About two weeks ago an alliance of armed gangs, often accused of being closely tied to the world of politics, blocked the country’s main oil terminal in reaction to the cancellation of a series of fuel subsidies by the government. .

Three quarters of the hospitals closed. The measure resulted in a rise in prices, with subsequent popular mobilization continuing in several areas of Haiti. According to theUnicef, about “three quarters” of the country’s hospitals are affected by the lack of fuel, while “22,100 children under five and 28 thousand newborns risk not receiving essential care in the next four weeks”. According to the portal of the radio station Metropole, hospitals have already closed in at least three departments: Jacmel, in the south, Gonaives, in the north and Leogane, around the capital. Two religious organizations active in the country, Nos Petits Frères et S £ urs (Npfs) and the Fondation Saint-Luc (Fsl), in a statement relaunched by the iciHaiti portal, “launched a sos to the main fuel suppliers to allow” the continuation of operations in two structures that guarantee treatment to “153 hospitalized children and 47 pregnant women” as well as “70 adults”.

* Brando Ricci, DIRE Agency