Gangs in Haiti have offered support as the death toll from Haiti’s earthquake has climbed up to 2,207.
Previously, gangs in the region were hijacking aid trucks and ambulances
The gangs’ actions forced relief workers to transport supplies by helicopter.
On Sunday, however, one of the capital’s most notorious gangsters announced in a social media video that his allied gangs had reached a truce and would assist in relief efforts. If that proves to be true, it might allow an acceleration of relief efforts.
Jimmy Cherizier, alias “Barbecue”, leader of G9 Revolutionary Forces, made a Facebook video to the address hardest-hit parts of Haiti’s southwestern peninsula.
“We want to tell them that the G9 Revolutionary Forces and allies, all for one and one for all, sympathise with their pain and sorrows,” Cherizier said. “The Revolutionary Forces G9 and allies … will participate in the relief by bringing them help. We invite all compatriots to show solidarity with the victims by trying to share what little there is with them.”
Recovery efforts have also been harmed by flooding and damage to roads.
Desperate crowds have scuffled over bags of food.
The collapse of churches in some of the hardest-hit areas have left residents to grieve in open fields.
In the city of Les Cayes, people are still attending outdoor church services as sanctuaries have been badly damaged.
About 200 worshippers gathered early at the Paroisse Saint-Joseph De Simon Roman Catholic Church on the outskirts of the city for the first Sunday mass since the disaster.
“Everyone was crying today for what they had lost,” said the priest, Marc Orel Sael. “And everyone is stressed because the earth is still shaking,” he added, referring to near-daily aftershocks that have rattled nerves all week.
The increase in the death toll was the first since late Wednesday when the government announced it to be 2,189. The government said on Sunday that 344 people were still missing, 12,268 people were injured and nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed by the earthquake.
Relief efforts are underway with the United States and Germany offering support.
