A ferocious Haiti gang boss known as 'Barbecue' is currently tightening his grip on the besieged nation, with violence becoming “worse” than in war-torn Ukraine, a British aid worker said.
Matt Knight, 55, of Goal Global flew into Port-au-Prince just three days prior to the uprising against Prime Minister Ariel Henry on February 29. The spiralling violence saw Henry resign on Tuesday (March 12) as the country continues to descend into chaos and the 74-year-old is currently stranded in Puerto Rico after gun-toting gangs reportedly prevented him from returning home.
Jimmy Chérizier, who allegedly earned the alias Barbecue for incinerating his victims, was formerly a member of Haiti’s police, pledging “to protect and serve”. He appeared not to honour its motto.
READ MORE: Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns as violence continues to grip Caribbean nation
Matt noted that G9 and Family mobster Chérizier seems like he’s on a “mission”, and it’s his thugs who've been inhibiting the former president from returning to Haiti by enforcing a lockdown of sorts. On Saturday, the US military began airlifting non-essential embassy staff from Port-au-Prince personnel as Barbecue’s gangs enhanced their violence in the area surrounding the US embassy and attempted to seize control of Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
“On the one hand it seems like there is some kind of plan – that Barbecue has pulled the gangs together under this umbrella ‘Viv Ansanm’ and they have some kind of mission, which is not allowing Ariel Henry back into the country,” he told The Guardian.
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It comes as Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, arrived in Jamaica to attend a summit of Caribbean leaders to discuss Haiti’s “dire political and security crisis”.
The humanitarian aid worker described listening to the “pop-pop-pah” of ongoing gunfire ringing out between security forces and gangs trying to storm Haiti’s international airport. Matt said: “I just lie there listening to [the shooting]. My mind won’t switch off. “It’s… ‘Pop-pop-pop-pop’ and then a blast. ‘Pop-pop-pah, pop-pop-pah’.
“Last night it went on for about half an hour. Some nights it has gone on longer… It’s pretty much every day that you can hear it.”
The Sheffield native compared the atrocities occurring in the Caribbean island to the Ukraine-Russia war – after spending time in Kyiv. “I spent six months in Ukraine when they started bombing Kyiv and this is worse than that,” he added.
Matt described the gunfire as with an eerie contrast: both indiscriminately raining down on victims yet calculated. “In Kyiv during the day you could walk around. [Here] it’s a far less controlled situation so the fear factor is much higher because it is just seemingly more random,” he said.
“This is the most frightened I’ve been just because of the randomness.” The aid worker noted that the situation is far more trepidatious for locals.
“However scary it is for me, it’s not nearly as scary as it is for a four-year-old kid who is having to run from their neighbourhood, grabbing whatever you can carry and hearing gunshots raining over your head,” he added.