Giles Clarke Photojournalist and Getty Image photographer renowned for covering topics such as current and post-global crises. Clarke was able to witness the fragments of the Caribbean Island of Haiti. A nation that has suffered from natural disasters, and economic crises and is now being tormented by gang violence.
Clarke who has been visiting the country since 2011 claimed, “Gangs now control some 75% of the city.” He added, “The streets I used to walk are now barricaded with burnt-out vehicles as entire neighborhoods desperately try to protect themselves from gang-led abductions and attacks.”
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Much of Port-au-Prince is under the control of feuding gangs, cutting off essential supply routes to the rest of the nation. Gang members have harassed the metropolitan area’s residents as well, causing some 200,000 people to evacuate their homes amid waves of rape, arson, kidnapping, and indiscriminate slaughter.
Recently, Clarke visited Port-au-Prince and took pictures of the congested displacement camps that have sprouted up all around the city. These may be found in places like churches, boxing gyms, old theaters, and schools.
Clarke stated, “I was there when school was supposed to be starting for the new year, but instead, many are now overrun by families in tents who sleep on the floors of the classrooms.” Clarke describes a few conditions that residents are forced to live under due to the ongoing catastrophe reckoned by gang members, “Mothers hold hungry babies as the NGOs rush to provide basic needs such as clean water, baby formula, and a daily meal if outside security allows access. Many of those I met complain about being unable to access clean water or medicine.”
Ariel Henry, the Prime Minister of Haiti, has been pleading for military intervention to help reestablish security since President Jovenel Moise was slain in 2021. The UN Security Council recently approved the dispatch of an armed multinational force.
