Updated 02.50 | Published 02.06
unsaveSave
expand-left
full screen Guyana President Irfaan Ali (right), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (centre) and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the crisis meeting on Haiti in Jamaica. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AP/TT
The United States promises to contribute another 100 million dollars to a multinational effort, led by Kenya, which will try to stabilize the situation in an increasingly lawless Haiti.
In addition, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces 33 million dollars in humanitarian aid and to create a body with representatives of countries in the Caribbean and of Haitian actors to help the Haitian population and prepare some kind of “political transition”.
Blinken made the announcement in connection with Caribbean leaders within the trade organization Caricom having a crisis meeting in Jamaica, regarding Haiti. The United States participated in the meeting.
– I think we can all agree that Haiti is on the brink of disaster, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali said, adding that it is important to act quickly and decisively.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness describes the situation in similar terms, but lets it be understood that there is no agreement on what the solution for Haiti might look like yet.
Haiti’s hard-pressed Prime Minister Ariel Henry was not at the meeting. He remains in Puerto Rico and cannot return home, after a trip to Kenya to prepare the international police force for Haiti, which has a UN mandate behind it.
Criminal gangs have taken over more and more of the country and the capital, Port-au-Prince, and shut down the airport.