To understand this influence of crime in the agricultural zone, we must go back at least to October 2022
Far from the cameras and the attention received by the insecurity in Port-au-Prince, gangs steal livestock, attack and pillage farmers in Artibonite.
Sexual abuse is becoming commonplace in towns like Liancourt, Petite-Rivière and Verrettes.
From April 2023 to March 2024, the Platform of Women Organized for the Development of Artibonite (PLAFODA) counted more than 1,370 cases of rape in the department.
In addition, the bandits attack the peasants. In April last year, the World Food Program (WFP) identified 5,000 hectares of abandoned agricultural land in this department.
Sexual abuse is becoming commonplace in towns like Liancourt, Petite-Rivière and Verrettes.
The commune of Liancourt includes 54 localities, only 34 are habitable today, according to a report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The dead are piling up.
Between January 2022 and November 2023, more than 1,690 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in lower Artibonite, according to a United Nations report.
Read also: Artibonite: farmers forced to abandon their land in the face of armed gangs
Located in the northwest, the Artibonite valley with its 28,000 hectares remains the most important in the country for rice cultivation.
To understand this influence of crime in the agricultural zone, we must go back at least to October 2022.
This month, Palmis gang leader Widzer Estimable was killed during violent clashes with police.
At the start of the year, the violence caused thousands of citizens to flee.
When the kingpin, also known as “Lodè,” died, his supporters promised to return to avenge him, according to the testimonies of several local residents.
The threat was taken seriously.
Dozens of citizens then set up a self-defense brigade and erected barricades in several neighborhoods of Petite-Rivière, the agricultural heart of the department.
Read also: Help ! The persistent cry of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite abandoned to bandits
Freshly returned from Port-au-Prince to work in his hometown in Petite-Rivière, Wendel Pierre contributes to these efforts.
Behind the improvised barriers in the streets, the wrecks of cars and used tires, the young electromechanic, as well as other young people, promised to do everything to prevent the gangs from returning.
In October 2022, members of the population erected a barricade gate at the entrance to the town center of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite, on the “Pon Bouk”, thus named in the town.
Armed with machetes, sticks, and cans filled with gasoline, young people who until yesterday lived with their parents and went to school have become neighborhood guards.
From October 2022 until the beginning of January 2023, they watched for the arrival of the bandits, day and night.
But at the beginning of last year, a group of citizens, concerned about the situation, announced that they had reached an agreement with the gangs so that they would give up their revenge.
As in several neighborhoods in the commune of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite, this alley at the bottom of the town was barricaded, in October 2022, by members of the population, to prevent the free movement of bandits.
The barricades are then lifted with the promise that activities can return to normal.
It was a bad decision, several residents of the area told AyiboPost.
“People started to let their guards down and that’s when the bandits managed to enter downtown Petite-Rivière,” says Wendel Pierre.
One of the houses burned by bandits in October 2022 in Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite. Residents had to flee the lower part of the town.
Gang attacks have increased: more than 9,000 people have had to flee their homes in search of a safer place, according to city hall data.
October 2022, houses are burned and destroyed by bandits; the inhabitants then deserted the lower part of the town of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite.
On January 27, 2023, the police abandoned the Petite-Rivière police station.
Threatened with death by a gang leader, Wendel Pierre abandons everything and returns to take refuge in Port-au-Prince in January 2023.
According to him, some of his fellow brigadiers had to leave the country to escape death.
“Something broke inside me and I need time to heal,” Pierre confides to AyiboPost, talking about the psychological problems he faced during these three months.
More than 9,000 people had to flee their homes in search of a safer place, according to city hall data.
Today, bandits have free rein in Petite-Rivière.
The phenomenon is not yet at its beginning.
Since 2018, the rise of gangs in lower Artibonite has stifled local life, impacting all spheres of activity in the region.
The inhabitants of Liancourt, Petite-Rivière and Verrettes constantly suffer the torture of armed men.
For almost six years, this place with strong agricultural potential has experienced a significant increase in crime, and has seen its agricultural capabilities decline.
“We are living in an untenable situation,” deplores the interim mayor of Petite-Rivière, Lereste Dort.
The town hall premises are no longer functioning. The city’s educational establishments are moving slowly. The peace court is no longer able to carry out legal procedures.
Since 2018, the rise of gangs in lower Artibonite has stifled local life, impacting all spheres of activity in the region.
The Dupuy public market in Petite-Rivière fell under the control of armed gangs. “We have had no possibility of collecting taxes for some time,” says Lereste Dort.
The Charles Colimon hospital — supported by the NGO Zanmi Lasante — is one of the rare institutions still operating in the commune.
Those in charge of the institution are forced to treat gang members, according to testimonies received on site by AyiboPost.
The continuation of the hospital’s operations remains the priority, analyzes the general practitioner and interim director of the establishment, Bob Eden Gaston, to AyiboPost.
“We cannot prohibit anyone from coming to the hospital for treatment,” the doctor told AyiboPost.
It is not yet clear how long this institution will continue to serve the population in a context of shortage of fuel and medicine.
Those in charge of the institution are forced to treat gang members.
During an attempted invasion by Savien’s gangs in July 2023, some of the extra-community personnel were temporarily relocated, as a precautionary measure. Which leaves the operating room for cesarean deliveries without a gynecologist.
The manager, Gaston, says he has observed an increase in cases of diabetes and high blood pressure at the hospital in recent months. “It could be related to the current situation,” he says.
Citizens are desperate. “We are living in fear, gangs are setting up everywhere,” a candy seller from Petite Rivière told AyiboPost. “We are forced to keep a low profile to avoid being robbed or kidnapped,” she confides.
According to the woman, two members of her family were kidnapped and then released for ransom in November 2023. Beaten, one of them has not yet fully recovered from the attack.
We live in fear, gangs are setting up everywhere. We are forced to keep a low profile to avoid being robbed or kidnapped.
The farmers of Artibonite are paying a heavy price for the actions of the bandits, according to testimonies collected on site.
In the localities of Laverdure and Grasèt, gangs do not hesitate to loot, steal residents’ livestock and rape with complete impunity.
In December last year, the bandits broke into Ylèné’s family in Laverdure. The thugs took away the livestock and poultry.
“Since then, they come back all the time and unexpectedly steal our things,” explains Ylèné.
In the Artibonite valley, irrigation is now under the control of bandits.
Read also: How is the abandonment of irrigation by the State worsening the food crisis in Haiti?
Many farmers abandon arable landbecause they cannot pay the bandits to be able to harvest their products.
A gang tax on water made it almost impossible for planters to water the plants at the start of the bean planting season from late last year until January 2024. .
“We can pay up to 1,500 gourdes each time we want to water,” reports farmer Ylèné.
On the other hand, it is the irrigation canals that are diverted.
In the locality of Boudèt, in Savien, for example, the gangs have diverted the trajectory of the Bidone canal which generally waters more than five localities.
You can pay up to 1,500 gourdes each time you want to water.
“This reality aggravates the valley’s irrigation problem and makes the situation of planters catastrophic,” deplores technician André Saint-Louis, agricultural technician and director of the association Réseau des Organizations pour l’Intégration des Planteurs du Bas-Artibonite. (ROIPBA).
All this adds to the fact that the main markets, such as that of Pont Sondé, have no longer been accessible to farmers for at least three years and the prices of agricultural inputs continue to rise.
“For the moment, a bag of Urea fertilizer costs 8,000 gourdes and the complete one sells for around 8,500 gourdes,” says the Saint-Louis technician.
Five years ago, these products sold for around 1,000 gourdes. This is why most farmers abandon cultivable land, due to the incessant losses recorded.
The Artibonite Valley Development Organization (ODVA), historically involved in agriculture, is running out of steam.
Facing a loss of management, cases of corruption and other internal problems, ODVA “does not have the means” to continue the fight, declares agronomist Jacques Donatien, assigned to the soil conservation department within of the institution.
For the moment, a bag of Urea fertilizer costs 8,000 gourdes and the complete one sells for around 8,500 gourdes.
Gangs increasingly control remote areas in the Artibonite.
An IOM report published in June 2023 reveals that more than 22,000 people fled rural areas to seek refuge in urban centers, between January 2022 and October 2023.
Rodney Paul lives in Verrettes.
Pursued by gangs, the teacher and native of Liancourt left the area three months ago, to take refuge under the roof of members of his family, displaced before him.
“Personally, I experience this very badly,” Paul explains to AyiboPost. “I survive in indignation and with the assistance of other people,” he laments.
Read also: Pursued by violence, Derline changes houses 7 times in 5 months
Of the 54 localities in Liancourt, only three are still inhabited today.
“The people who stay are mostly those who have nowhere to go,” reveals a source on site, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals.
In Liancourt and other surrounding areas, public services are at ground zero.
“No electricity, no drinking water. The police station, the town hall, the main health center, the radio stations have all closed their doors. Only the civil registry office still functions in the commune,” concludes the source to AyiboPost.
The people who stay are mostly those who have nowhere to go.
In January 2023, the bandits of Savien launched a bloody attack against the police station of this commune bordering Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite, causing the death of six police officers.
Following the gang’s repeated attacks, an armed protection brigade at Liancourt, called Coalition, was formed.
With the support of members of the population and the diaspora, they arm themselves, travel the roads and collect money in different places to ensure their operation.
Read also: Ordinary citizens, major buyers of weapons in Haiti
With formal justice almost no longer existing, the brigadiers themselves apprehend and kill people suspected of belonging to Savien’s gang.
Slippages occur regularly, according to several testimonies collected by AyiboPost.
People who come from Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite are sometimes accused of being scouts, bandits or gang members on the run.
“As soon as your identity card mentions Petite-Rivière, it is already a first condition for your execution,” the journalist from Desarmes Community Radio (RCD), Exumé Rotchild, tells AyiboPost.
In 2023, a taxi driver from Desarmes was killed because people identified him as a gang scout.
During the same year, a tap-tap driver providing the Petite-Rivière — Verrettes route was also lynched and then burned for unresolved suspicions.
As soon as your identity card mentions Petite-Rivière, this is already a first condition for your execution.
From a humanitarian point of view, “this is unheard of,” laments Bressiac Lubien, coordinator of the National Federation of Organizations for the Defense of Human Rights based in Gonaïves. “Thousands of people are dispossessed and now live by begging,” he relates.
According to the manager, “more and more students, without any support from their families, are no longer able to go to school, which increases the number of street children.”
Women, already vulnerable, swell the ranks of victims of violence.
Lisette Vertyl, departmental coordinator of the platform of women organized for the development of Artibonite, is surprised by the statistics collected by the organization on cases of sexual violence.
“This is the first time that we are facing such an explosion of rape cases,” Vertyl told AyiboPost.
Many women cannot provide for themselves.
“Many are forced to prostitute themselves to survive,” Vertyl confides to AyiboPost.
Par Jérôme Wendy Norestyl & Wethzer Piercin
Cover image: farmers in the Artibonite in a rice field. | © SOCODEVI
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