Some gangs control Varreux, the terminal where the boats deliver the fuel and they do not let anything out unless the Prime Minister resigns. They hold 70% of the fuel. This affects all services: hospitals, supermarkets, schools, churches, shops, filtration and water treatment service and garbage collection. Without access to treated water, a cholera epidemic has just broken out. Piles of garbage accumulate
Protesters looted supermarkets, electronics stores and World Food Programme (WFP) reserves. They set fire to the 4C drug reserve depot that supplied hospitals.
Asou has been living with us for 11 years. He was 9 years old when he arrived. In these difficult times, he lines up for hours to buy water, propane and food for us and for families in need. After school, he repeatedly encountered protests and inhaled tear gas. But he is victorious. It was God who gave him. Whenever we think it’s our last bottle of water or propane, God opens a door and we find others.
Schools were supposed to open on September the 5th, but the Ministry of Education postponed it until October the 3rd. Because of threats from opponents of the government, most schools remained closed including ours.
The embassies of the United States and the Dominican Republic have asked their citizens to leave Haiti.
We use the budget of our nutrition program to buy supplies for the needy families. Goods are dwindling due to fuel shortages and queues can last an entire day.
There are prisoners who are starving. We must pray for Haiti. It is a spiritual warfare. We would have liked to give you a positive report, but unfortunately that is not the case. Please pray for the conversion of gang leaders and their members and protesters in general so that evil turns into good.
We so appreciate your support and prayers. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Michel & Louise Charbonneau
Update on the situation by Karen Bultje, Global Worker in Haiti, living 25 minutes away from our house.
As time goes on there are less supplies available in stores and depots. The gangs have the port blocked and supplies can’t get to the depots. Everybody is searching for food and water. On the weekend we went to Epi Dor to buy bread and to get a break. Epi Dor is next to Keijzer Computer and a bank. We parked our vehicle in the Eagle Market parking lot and we walked past the long garbage pile stretching from the Eagle Market parking gates to the next street corner. We walked by the burnt bank and Keijzer Computer which was looted and burned a couple of weeks ago. Even with a wall and strong metal gates the looters just smashed a hole through the concrete wall to get into the compound and building.
We went into Epi Dor and there was no bread on the shelves and no pastries. The workers told us they were sold out. This was at 9:30 am and they opened at 8:00 am. Eryl and I ate a sandwich. We watched people come in and everyone noticed the bare shelves. Today we went to a wholesaler looking for food supplies and were able to find some but not all of what we need. Tomorrow we will search again.
Today the schools were supposed to open. We used today to search for supplies. We monitored the radio reports to find out where protest groups were. Some protesters wore school uniforms and said that they were representing the students in the protests. In Cap Haitian the Valerio Canez store was looted. In Cayes some protest groups walked to school sites to see if schools were functioning. In Petionville there was a large protest group. We are living in seige conditions between the gangs and the government. Neither group is giving in and the population is just trying to survive.
We were able to look for supplies until 1:00 pm. That is when the protests started taking over the main streets. In the Belleville area, which is an upper class area, residents had built a wall blocking access to the Torcel gang led by Vitelhomme. The gang last week came with heavy equipment and smashed the security wall. Over the weekend containers were stacked to form another wall. The Vitelhomme gang wants to take control of Belleville, Police Academy, Vivy Michel, and Petionville. The Haitian government representative told the UN security council in its meeting last Monday that the government had the situation under control.
The UN and leaders of countries are watching Haiti descend into chaos that is getting worse by the day. I don’t know at what point if any that the world will step in to help the Haitian people. Barbecue, the leader of the G9 gang alliance in an announcement told Ariel Henry to leave just like the leader of Afghanistan did. I guess Barbecue thinks that his group is like the Taliban. Pray for Haiti and its people.
Hopefully the cholera epidemic can be controlled. On our search list is bleach. We are searching for that tomorrow. The government is telling people to add bleach to water to kill bacteria. We did this after the earthquake to make drinking water and are prepared to do it again if we need to. Pray we can find the supplies we need. Pray that the gangs will let food leave from the port to the storage depots. Some prisoners have died of starvation in Petit Goave. It is sad. The images of them are just like those who were in concentration camps during world war 2. The government authorities are asking civil society and missions to help feed the prisoners.