Keyword: Haïti

Why an international investigation into Haiti aid scandal is urgent

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A camp for Haitians made homeless by the 2010 quake. © Reuters A camp for Haitians made homeless by the 2010 quake. © Reuters

This week marked ten years since a devastating earthquake hit the impoverished Caribbean state of Haiti, when up to 300,000 people were killed and 1.5 million others were left homeless. The ensuing reconstruction programme drew billions of dollars in aid, but also led to massive corruption. Mediapart co-founder and former editor François Bonnet, who has regularly reported on the tragedy in Haiti, details the fiasco and argues here why a thorough investigation into the gigantic scams must be led under the auspices of the UN, and those found responsible must be prosecuted. Nothing less can restore confidence in international institutions – beginning with the UN itself.

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Hollande in Haiti dodges reparation demands

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The French president, the first to make an official visit to the Caribbean island, sidestepped demands for repayment of imposed 19th-century debt.

Racism monitor to sue over French bank's Haiti 'plunder'

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Racism watchdog group says it will file a legal suit against French state-owned bank Caisse des Depots over its role in the slave trade in Haiti.

Who helped Baby Doc's shock return to shattered Haïti?

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© Francis Concite © Francis Concite
Confusion continues to surround the circumstances of the surprise arrival in Haïti on Sunday of the country's former dictator Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc' Duvalier (right), after 25 years of exile in France. While the Haïtian senate has summoned the country's justice and interior ministers and police chief to explain events in a special hearing Thursday, questions are raised over how the former despot was able to leave France on an expired diplomatic passport.

Haiti tinderbox as cholera catastrophe looms

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Dans le parc Sainte Thérèse, 2.500 réfugiés. © (F.Bt.) Dans le parc Sainte Thérèse, 2.500 réfugiés. © (F.Bt.)

Cholera has entered the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, devastated by an earthquake in January. Mediapart editor François Bonnet reports from a country on the verge of an unprecedented health catastrophe and a major social and political crisis, amid popular fury towards the authorities accused of negligence and corruption and at the peace-keeping force for allegedly introducing the epidemic.