MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Haitian gov't announces security measures for merchant ships sailing to and from Port-au-Prince

Conille's government is faced with shipping companies threatening to halt operations in the country as gangs favor smuggling to formal foreign trade

Haitian authorities have announced that merchant ships will be escorted then entering a leaving Port-au-Prince given the mounting insecurity in the Caribbean country. Interim Prime Minister Garry Conille made this decision after four ships left to avoid gang violence.

Three 110-foot vessels will now be put into operation, one of which will be in the waters of La Gonâve to escort the ships to a halfway point, another to take them to port, and a third will accompany them on their departure from Port-au-Prince, it was explained.

According to the local newspaper Le Nouvelliste, two Filipino crew members (a mechanic and a cook) were kidnapped 15 nautical miles from the port terminal. In addition, gangsters staged armed attacks against port facilities to scare off shipping companies, thus affecting imports that would jeopardize their smuggling businesses from the neighboring Dominican Republic, which is said to be gaining momentum.

Hence, shipping companies have not sent any vessel to Port-au-Prince for several days and are reportedly considering halting their operations in the country.

In analyzing his first 100 in office Thursday, Conille said he was doing his best to “pull Haiti out of a deadlock” by “laying the foundations for inclusive and reformist governance.”