As a modus operandi, the bandits use motorized fishing boats, which makes their ability to act much faster
It was three o’clock in the afternoon on June 23, 2023, when the boat «La vie des enfants», loaded with goods and carrying a hundred people on board, left the Jérémie wharf in the direction of the commune of Arcahaie.
A light breeze swept across the horizon and «during the trip the sea wasn’t bad,» says Holdy, a passenger who was on board the boat.
‘The Children’s Life’ was accompanied by two other small boats ‘Pa Prese di sa’ and ‘Maranatha’, which sailed a little further back.
Suddenly, about five o’clock, a rowboat containing several hooded and heavily armed men burst in and chased one of the two boats.
Alerted by a passenger to the presence of the bandits who were chasing the first boat, the «Children’s Lives» crew members tried to speed up. However, their efforts were in vain, as the boat was overloaded with cargo and passengers.
Quickly, the first two boats were captured and forcibly diverted under the leadership of armed bandits, to the vicinity of the Minoterie, an area under the control of the «5 Seconds» gang of the Village de Dieu.
Read also: Gangs engage in boat piracy in Haiti
Then comes the turn of the sailboat «The Lives of Children». The passengers were visibly distraught when five masked men boarded the rowboat. Three of them seized all the phones. And after the search, they beat up Captain Bereno Louis.
The passengers were visibly distraught when five masked men boarded the rowboat.
At around 7 a.m., «the bandits entered their stronghold with us, at the Flour Mill,» says Holdy, who also remembers hearing gunshots during the brutal murder of Captain Bereno Louis. His corpse was burned in the vicinity.
The passengers spent the night in the bandits’ stronghold. The next day, they will all be embarked on one of the sailboats heading for Arcahaie around noon.
The boat «La vie des enfants» was destroyed by the bandits, almost two months after the events. Daniel Pierre, owner of the sailboat, revealed that he had «spent [in vain] 150,000 gourdes to recover the boat». The bandits’ intransigence has left the father, who has been involved in cabotage since 1997, with no other recourse.
«The goods the ship was carrying could be valued at 650,000 gourdes,» says Kervens Lubin, the sailboat’s captain.
At about seven o’clock, the bandits entered their fiefdom with us, at the level of the flour mill.
This is not an isolated case. Members of the notorious «5 Seconds» gang, dissatisfied with controlling the section of Martissant that leads to the south of the country, violently hunt down and kidnap for ransom more and more small sailboats bound for Carrefour or Arcahaie, AyiboPost learns through interviews carried out in the cabotage sector.
Read also: Pictures | Haitians push back the sea in Carrefour for “fè tè”. A dangerous practice.
Attacks are on the rise as the land stretches become less and less passable due to gang violence.
As a modus operandi, the bandits use motorized fishing boats, which makes their ability to act much faster in a context where ordinary boats are slow and often filled with goods, Gilbert Guichard, an inspector at the Haitian Coast Guard, told AyiboPost.
According to testimonies, the bandits also have binoculars in order to spot boats from a distance.
At least 53 people fell victim to piracy during the quarter. This represents 35.33% of kidnapping cases in the country during this period.
«In the beginning, the kidnappings were recorded at the level of Cité Soleil. But, at a certain point, when the Coast Guard services began to monitor the surroundings, the bandits went to operate at the Minoterie d’Haïti,» says Gilbert Guichard.
Read also: Haitian aquaculture on the brink of collapse
In 2023, several notable cases were recorded by the Maritime and Navigation Service of Haiti (SEMANAH).
These include the attacks on the sailboat «Dye Inosan» in February 2023, the abduction of «Pa prese di sa» in April 2022 and most recently, in June, the hijacking of the three aforementioned sailboats.
SEMANAH admits its impotence. «The institution does not have an armed wing, it is up to the Coast Guard service to assume its responsibilities,» says Érold Champagne, its coordinator of territorial representations.
The Coast Guard is also powerless. Gilbert Guichard mentions that they do not have effective means and equipment to sail the seas. Among other things, the inspector mentions a persistent lack of fuel, the defectiveness of patrol boats, etc.
Read also: Insecurity and corruption plague maritime traffic regulation in Haiti
Jean-Marie Djouly, the wife of Captain Bereno Louis of the boat «La vie des enfants», learned the news of her husband’s death at around three o’clock in the morning on June 24, 2023. «When I heard the news of his death,» the mother of three told AyiboPost, «I felt like I was losing my discernment.»
Today, Jean-Marie Djouly has to rely on the generosity of some relatives to support his children.
Cover image: Passengers are aboard a sailboat named ‘Virewon’ in Port-de-Paix, located in the Nord-Ouest department. | © AyiboPost
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