On Saturday, October 23, 2021, a man waiting outside a gas station in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, balances his bike tank. The ongoing fuel shortage has worsened and demonstrators are blocking. Roads and burning tires in the capital of Haiti condemn a serious shortage and a surge in anxiety. (AP Photo / Matthias de la Croix)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (AP) —The capital of Haiti is on the verge of depletion due to staggering fuel shortages despite earthquakes, presidential assassinations, gang violence and mass abductions.
More than two weeks of fuel supply, interrupted by the blockade of gangs and the abduction of fuel truck drivers, has driven Port-au-Prince residents into a desperate quest for gasoline and diesel. Fuel is widely used to power the generators needed to supplement the country’s unreliable electrical systems.
The city’s major fuel terminals are in or near gang-controlled areas such as Martinssan, LaSaline, and Citesoliel, and some gangs report demanding blackmail payments to pass fuel trucks. It has been.
Gangsters have become a powerful force in Haiti. One of the gangs recently kidnapped 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group, demanding a ransom of $ 1 million each for their release, and warned that hostages would be killed if the demands were not met. It is reported that. Nothing has been said about their destiny yet.
Gangsters have also kidnapped hundreds of Haitians, and the government seems unable or unwilling to undertake them.
A protest took place on Saturday in the Delmas district, where gas stations ran out of fuel. Police arrived and dispersed the crowd with warning shots of what looked like a live round.
Some of the country’s mobile networks have suffered poor service due to lack of fuel to run cell tower equipment.
An official at St. Damian Hospital, the capital’s most important pediatric center, said only three days were left to run a generator that powers ventilators and medical devices. Hospitals can be partially operated by solar power, but that does not provide enough power for all needs.
The hospital’s project manager, Denso Gay, said St. Damian is treating two patients with COVID-19 and also handles emergency surgery such as Caesarean section.
“I’m very worried,” said Gay. “The situation is very serious.”
“Oxygen is powered by electricity. If you don’t have oxygen and electricity to power your (medical) equipment, you need to get closer to a new patient,” he said.
Gay estimates that about 1,500 gallons of fuel left in the hospital’s reserve tank will last only about three more days.
Hospitals typically deliver about 3,000 gallons of fuel twice a month.
“We contacted the company, and they said they couldn’t deliver, they couldn’t come across the town because of the danger to the driver,” Gay said.
Digicel Haiti’s CEO announced last week that 150 of 1,500 branches nationwide are not using diesel, as many gas stations remain closed for several days at a time and fuel shortages are so disastrous. Did.
On Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators blocked roads in Port-au-Prince, burned tires, and protested a serious fuel shortage and surge in anxiety.
Alexandre Simon, an English and French teacher, said he and others were protesting because of the dire situation facing the Haitians.
“There are many people who can’t eat,” he said. “I don’t have a job … there are many things we don’t have.”
Haiti’s capital at stake due to lack of fuel | WGN Radio 720
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