Richard Madeley clashed with the President of Guyana this morning after he said the UK should pay slavery reparations in the wake of a UN report calling on countries to consider compensation for their roles in the transatlantic slave trade.

President Irfaan Ali, whose country received a formal apology from the descendants of a British slave owner last month, said that the UK must realise it ‘still benefits from the greatest indignity to the human being’.

His comments come after a report by UN chief Antonio Guterres called on countries to consider financial reparations for the ‘harms suffered as a result of colonialism and enslavement’.

Last month, a leading international judge also claimed Britain owes almost £19trillion in reparations for its role in the international slave trade, and even that might be an ‘underestimation’.

But when a furious Madeley quizzed President Ali on why today’s generation should ‘carry the burden’ for what their ancient ancestors did, President Ali told Good Morning Britain: ‘Oh it’s not a burden at all. You are one of the beneficiary of that slave trade so this is not a burden.

‘You should be concerned and you should pay because you today still benefit from the greatest indignity to the human being and that is the slave trade. And not only did you benefit during the slave trade and your country develop but look at what it cost the developing world.

‘During slavery, resources was used to build your country, build up your capacity. You were able to then become competitive, able to invest in mechanisation and developing countries like ours were left behind so you should be very concerned because you are prime beneficiaries of exploits of slavery.’

Madeley had questioned the president on why ‘someone who maybe had an ancestor seven or eight generations ago should have to pay for what an ancient ancestor did’.

He also asked: ‘How far back do we have to go on this? We are speaking exclusively on Western imperialistic slavery to summaries but almost every civilisation on the planet owes its existence and prosperity almost always to crimes, in the past…

‘Why just target one particular era in history? Some would argue that’s the argument of political convenience. Its a handy handle to hang your argument on.’

But a defiant Mr Ali replied: ‘I think you’re doing a great injustice to compare slavery with any other historical facts that you are mentioning. 

‘It is a great injustice to the indignity that slavery brought to people.’

Mr Ali added that when he came on to the programme, other topics such as net zero and climate injustice were being spoken about – something he believes is at the forefront of discussion.

He continued: ‘This is the problem. We live in a very unjust society. We condemn completely the war in Ukraine. But if you look at the mobilisation of resources in the war in Ukraine in two years, you have mobilised more support for Ukraine than you have mobilised for Haiti for 60 years.

‘You have mobilised more support for Ukraine than you have mobilised for Palestine in 20 years. You have mobilised more support for Ukraine in just one and a half years than you have mobilised to address hunger in Africa for three years.

‘That is the type of unjust way we have been dealing with these crises. We are not going to tolerate  the injustice that occurred during slavery to be compared with any other system. Slavery, we all agree, was the greatest injustice very done to human beings.’

Yesterday’s UN report on slavery has been hailed by campaigners as an important step forward in the fight for reparative justice.

The report said: ‘Under international human rights law, compensation for any economically assessable damage, as appropriate and proportional to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, may also constitute a form of reparations,’ the report said.

‘In the context of historical wrongs and harms suffered as a result of colonialism and enslavement, the assessment of the economic damage can be extremely difficult owing to the length of time passed and the difficulty of identifying the perpetrators and victims.’

Reacting to the report, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, told The Guardian: ‘This is a hugely significant step for the international reparations movement. For decades, grassroots organisations have fought for this level of recognition for their claim.

‘Those who were enslaved were not in a position to push for reparations, but their descendants who continue to suffer the impact of African chattel slavery are.’

Last month, Guyana received an apology from the descendants of Scottish 19th-century sugar and coffee plantation owner John Gladstone.

Gladstone was the father of former British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone – who was funded by his father’s links to slavery.

The former PM’s father owned or held mortgages over 2,508 enslaved Africans, who worked on his sugar plantations in Guyana and Jamaica. Early in his career, William spoke in parliament in defence of his father’s involvement in slavery and spoke out against the abolition of slavery.

John Gladstone was compensated £106,000 when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833, making him the fifth largest beneficiary.

Charles Gladstone, a descendant of former plantation owner John Gladstone, travelled to Guyana from Britain with five relatives to offer the formal apology.

‘It is with deep shame and regret that we acknowledge our ancestors’ involvement in this crime and with heartfelt sincerity, we apologise to the descendants of the enslaved in Guyana,’ he told an audience at the University of Guyana. 

‘In doing so, we acknowledge slavery’s continuing impact on the daily lives of many.’

The speech was interrupted by protesters holding up placards at the back of the room. 

Last month, Patrick Robinson, who sits in International Criminal Court, claimed that countries behind the centuries of atrocities were ‘obliged to pay’ and accused politicians like Rishi Sunak of burying their heads in the sand.

He spoke after an academic report in June alleged that 31 former slaveholding states – which also include the United States and Spain – owed $100trillion – $131trillion between them.

Speaking to the Guardian,  Robinson said: ‘I believe that the UK will not be able to resist this movement towards the payment of reparations: it is required by history and it is required by law.’

Centrelink veteran Jez Heywood has demanded the government stop forcing the unemployed to look for a job while they receive welfare payments.

The president of the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union hit the headlines earlier this year after he was embroiled in an on-air row with 2GB’s Ben Fordham when the radio host tried to find him a job.

But on Tuesday, Mr Heywood testified before the House of Representatives select committee into Workforce Australia Employment Services and used it to call for an end to Jobseeker’s ‘mutual obligations’.

Workforce Australia requires the unemployed to earn up to 100 points each month by applying for jobs, going on courses, turning up for job interviews and keeping appointments.

Anyone failing to hit their target can have their Jobseeker payments axed.

But Mr Heywood said being forced to try to find work was too stressful for the unemployed and it should be stopped immediately.

He admitted having a ‘massive’ mental breakdown during his decade on the dole and was allowed to skip his mutual obligations for three months at a time on medical advice.

But Mr Heywood said that even that was too stressful to bear.

‘I had this massive breakdown, stayed in bed and cried for a week,’ he told committee chair and Labor MP Julian Hill.

‘I got mutual obligation exemption – medical certificates – but that was anxiety-inducing in itself…

‘Every three months I had to run the risk of some Centrelink person with no medical experience overruling a doctor’s medical certificate.’

Centrelink eventually stopped accepting his medical certificates, he said, after they said his condition was permanent and put him back to signing on every fortnight. 

‘So now it’s a two week anxiety cycle of meeting my obligations under the looking for jobs and everything else and then having my fortnightly meetings with them,’ he said.

‘And you know, it’s just, like, unemployment’s, like, not-fun enough as it is. We don’t need all this other s*** on top of it.’

He said his best time on the dole was when the pandemic hit Australia in 2020 and mutual obligations were put on hold for six months and Jobseeker payments almost doubled.

He said the Covid package was a ‘breath of fresh air for everybody involved’.

‘The relief that people felt when they were living above the poverty line finally, and when they didn’t have the government breathing down their necks,’ he added.

‘It made such a difference to people’s mental health.’

He claimed his employment services provider enlisted him on a barista course in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, 125km from his home near Frankston in Melbourne’s south-east.

‘That was the only site they offered a barista course,’ he told the hearing. 

‘I went on the internet and found the barista courses nearby that weren’t through Matchworks [the associated provider]. They wouldn’t do it…just, no. Sorry.’

He said one of the few jobs he had been offered was working the phones for Centrelink.

‘I said, sure,’ he told the hearing. ‘If you don’t mind running the risk that I’ll become a whistleblower.

‘I never heard anything more back from that.’

His comments come after Mr Heywood joined the social media pile-on attacking Rich List business boss Tim Gurner for calling workers arrogant and saying the unemployment rate needed to rise by 40 to 50 per cent.

Heywood posted a photograph of Mr Gurner from a Daily Mail Australia article about the backlash over Mr Gurner’s comments, showing him beside a woman in front of an electric blue Porsche 911 Carrera valued at $320,000.

In a troubling call-out to his 3000-plus followers, Mr Heywood posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘Pretty distinctive blue Porsche you got there, Tim. 

‘Can’t be many of them driving about Melbourne. Wonder how much a set of tyres are for it?’

But in a fail, Porsche doesn’t belong to Mr Gurner – and the woman beside him is not Mr Gurner’s wife, Amee Gurner.

The woman pictured is actually Gold Coast mum-of-three Rachael Reid, a former model and racecar driver, who was photographed meeting Mr Gurner for business.

The Porsche belongs to her and the picture features on her Instagram account, Her Supercar Life, which boasts more than 100,000 fans and has now spawned its own business.

A telltale sticker in the back window of the Porsche in the picture would have alerted Mr Heywood – but even after it was pointed out, he continued regardless.

When it was suggested the car might be a rental, he added: ‘Ah, damn. Still, there is always the insurance excess.’

But by then, it was too late and his followers were already plotting ways to vandalise the Porsche. 

One follower suggesting it should be sprayed with paint-stripping brake fluid, while another said a bottle of coke would have the same effect on the pristine bodywork.

Others warned it could be keyed or scratched, or have all its tyres let down by using a lentil under the valve cap. 

One ominously researched the cost of a new Porsche tyre and found it to be $967 a time, while another instructed would-be vandals to only damage three tyres because ‘if it’s all four, insurance will pay out’. 

Other followers tagged in extremist environmental activist group Tyre Extinguishers who target 4×4 SUVs by deflating their tyres to protest against carbon pollution.

One follower though warned Heywood he had gone too far and advised: ‘I’d be deleting this post’, but his suggestion was ignored.

Furious bride demands a refund from her wedding photographer after discovering that the female snapper had SEX with her husband

• The sordid story was laid bare on Reddit in the Wedding Photography sub-thread
• User Wedding Dude said he had hired a fellow photographer to accompany him 
• But he was later contacted by the bride who claimed an affair had taken place 

By Raven Saunt For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 14:22 EDT, 8 August 2023

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has called for a Congressional probe over whether to impeach Joe Biden over his son’s messages with Chinese officials.

Cruz, speaking on a podcast, said a string of texts show that Hunter Biden was using his access to his father to win his lucrative business deals abroad.

It comes after the 53-year-old First Son struck a plea deal last week with federal prosecutors in Delaware over tax and firearm offenses.

But GOP bigwig Cruz said Congress should open an investigation into whether the president himself was using his position to line his pockets. 

 ‘Look, this WhatsApp is direct evidence of Joe Biden abusing his government power to enrich his son, and, assuming 10% for the big guy, to enrich himself,’ he said.

‘Remember, this WhatsApp says ‘we want to know.’ This is not just me, Hunter, just mooching off my dad…. Of course the House needs to investigate it,’ the top Republican claimed.

But any idea that an impeachment motion would succeed is far-fetched because the upper house of Congress, the Senate, is currently controlled by the Democrats. 

Conservatives have long claimed that Hunter Biden has been guilty of using his family connections to rake in millions of dollars abroad.

They are investigating his deals in Ukraine and China that they claim were struck thanks to the access he got to his father, who was vice-president under Barack Obama.

In the 2017 WhatsApp message singled out by Cruz, Hunter sent a menacing threat to a Chinese Communist Party official after Joe Biden had left the VP office.

He hinted to Henry Zhao, CEO of Harvest Fund Management, that his father would see to it that he would be punished if he did not comply with the unspecified demand.

‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.’

‘I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,’ Hunter Biden reportedly said.

The allegations undercut consistent claims from the Biden family and administration that Joe was not involved in his son’s foreign business dealings.

Hunter’s lawyers have insisted the WhatsApp was the ramblings of a troubled man in the midst of a drug addiction.

On Friday, a lawyer for IRS whisteblower Gary Shapley claimed that his attempts to get to the bottom of the WhatsApp story had been rebuffed by prosecutors.

‘The agents wanted to follow up on this and the prosecutors told them not to because, oh, well, maybe Hunter Biden was puffing or something like that,’ said Mark Lytle, Shapley’s attorney.

He told Fox News on Friday: ‘So the agent said, well, let’s get the GPS location of the two of the father and the son, and let’s see if they’re actually in the same room at that time.

On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers – including Shapley – who said the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden.

Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri who chairs the committee, claimed that testimony ‘outlines misconduct and government abuse at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the investigation of Hunter Biden.

‘Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying, divulging, and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes.’

The committee said on Thursday: ‘The allegations point to a steady campaign of: unequal treatment of enforcing tax law; Department of Justice interference in the form of delays, divulgences, and denials, into the investigation of tax crimes that may have been committed by the President’s son; and finally, retaliation against IRS employees who blew the whistle on the misconduct.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer Chris Clark, who negotiated a plea agreement on Hunter’s behalf with the Justice Department, called the whistleblower ‘biased’ and claimed the account covered ‘a time of turmoil and addiction’ for the president’s son.

He also disputed the veracity of Hunter’s claim about now-President Biden in the WhatsApp message, saying his words have ‘no connection to anyone in his family.’

‘An extensive, five-year-long investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice concluded this week, which resulted in my client taking responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments, as well as a firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement,’ said Clark.

The First Son also managed to strike an out-of-court settlement with an alleged former fling Lunden Roberts in a long-running row over child support payments.

The 53-yearold will now pay $5,000 a month to support his daughter  Navy Joan, 4, who he has never met. 

Arsenal ‘have been shocked by William Saliba’s wage demands amid PSG interest’ as Gunners struggle to agree a new deal with the highly-rated defender

• Arsenal are prepared to treble William Saliba’s wages to keep him at the club 
• Talks began prior to the World Cup but a new contract has yet to be agreed
• The highly rated defender only has one year remaining on his Arsenal deal

By Michael Pavitt For Mailonline

Published: 19:57 EDT, 30 May 2023 | Updated: 20:00 EDT, 30 May 2023

Top Republican demands IRS commissioner explain ‘retaliation’ plot that led to whistleblower’s entire Hunter Biden team being removed from the investigation

By Kelly Laco, Executive Editor Of Politics For Dailymail.Com

Published: 11:52 EDT, 17 May 2023 | Updated: 12:30 EDT, 17 May 2023

Joe Biden again called on Congress to send an assault weapons ban to his desk for signature after the latest mass shooting in Texas left eight people dead.

The president lamented that the ‘leading cause of death for American kids is gun violence’ while listing the moves he has taken to try and tackle the crisis already, noting ‘it’s not enough.’

‘We need more action, faster to save lives,’ he urged.

Biden also blamed Republicans for holding up action and insisted: ‘Republican Members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough.’

‘Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,’ he continued. ‘Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe.’

Meanwhile, Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott insisted Sunday morning that the best way to address the exponential increase in gun violence is to focus on the mental health problems at the root of the issue.

The explanation comes after his gun-friendly state saw yet another mass shooting on Saturday that left nine people dead at a mall, including the gunman.

Abbott dismissed critics’ claims that the lax gun laws in Texas are to blame for the increased mass shootings. Instead, he noted that all states have been experiencing an increase in gun violence in recent years.

‘We need to recognize the reality we’ve seen across the United States over the last year or two, and that is an increased number of shootings in both red states and blue states,’ the Republican governor told Fox News Sunday. ‘We’ve seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws, as well as states with very strict gun laws.’

‘I think that the state in which the largest number of victims occurred this year is in California, where they have very tough gun laws,’ he added.

A gunman with an AR-15 and wearing full tactical gear opened fire at an H&M clothing store in the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas on Saturday afternoon.

He gunned down eight people, including children, before a hero cop took out the shooter. The cop was on scene for an unrelated call but rushed over when he heard the gunshots.

Biden lamented in his Sunday afternoon statement: ‘Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar.’

The shooting on Saturday comes almost exactly a year after another mass shooting shook Texas in Uvalde last May at the Robb Elementary School.

Abbott said earlier on Sunday: ‘One thing that we can observe very easily – and that is there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that’s taking place in America.’

‘And what Texas is doing in a big time way, we are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing mental health problems behind it,’ he told Fox News.

New audio footage of the most recent shooting reveals how the unnamed hero officer made a frantic phone call begging for his colleagues to join him on the scene, radioing: ‘I need everybody I got.’

He bravely ran towards the active shooter – who was armed with 60 rounds and had shot over a dozen people by this point – and killed him.

Around two minutes after first calling for backup, the cop said: ‘I got him down.’ 

Minutes later, another voice is heard on the radio saying: ‘We got victims. I need an ambulance.’ 

The FBI have raided the dead suspect’s home following the civilian massacre.  

A stampede of hundreds of shoppers were seen racing out of the complex while gunfire rained out – as security and police attempted to shepherd them to safety. 

People in the store were frantically ushered into lockable rooms, and when they eventually got the all-clear to come out, they saw the broken windows, trails of blood by the door, and bloodied bodies covered in sheets.  

Dashcam video showed the gunman getting out of a car and shooting at people on the sidewalk on Saturday afternoon. More than three dozen shots could be heard as the vehicle that was recording the video drove off. 

The gunman was using an AR-15-style gun during the mass shooting, and was dressed in full tactical SWAT gear. 

Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd confirmed that seven people died at the scene, including the gunman, and then a further two victims died in hospital. 

Three of the wounded were in critical condition in the evening, and four were stable, Boyd said in an update on Saturday night. 

A Dallas-area medical group said it was treating victims as young as five-years-old. 

Investigators have confirmed that they believe the shooter was working alone, but they have not yet released any motive for the devastating killings.  

Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard the sound of gunshots through his headphones. He said: ‘It was so loud, it sounded like it was right outside.

‘I pray it wasn’t kids, but it looked like kids,’ he said. 

The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the ground. ‘It broke me when I walked out to see that.’

Payton then saw the body of the dead shooter – which was the only one not covered, he recalled.  

Another witness, Kimberly Blakey, said she and her daughter, 14, were among the crowd of people rushing to flee the parking lot after the gunfire started.

She said the raining bullets were ‘non-stop.’ Her car got shot at during the ordeal as she tried to escape. 

Blakey told CNN: ‘I told my daughter to get down. I could hear her start praying.’ 

Another witness, Sheliza Ramlall, who was in the Nike store when the violence broke out, said: ‘I had the most horrifying experience earlier. I was standing in line at the Nike store when all of a sudden people started to scream and run. 

‘The people in the doorway saw the man with the gun outside and raised the alarm. All of us in line dropped to the floor and started to crawl looking for a hiding place while falling over each other. 

‘I crawled behind the counter. At that moment, I realized that we were right in plain sight and and figured that I needed to get away from the front. 

‘As I looked to the back of the store, I heard someone saying ‘get to the back, get to the back’ and everyone started running at that point. An employee opened the back door and let us out. We are standing by the roadside shaken, crying, and hugging each other.

‘Not knowing where the gunman was or what was happening on the other side was terrifying but I wanted to get out of there so I left the crowd and started to flag the cars down to give me a lift. 

‘An elderly woman stopped and I hopped in a panic. She started to tell me about the gunshots she heard and drove me to my car. I raced out of there with an elevated heartbeat. 

‘I am grateful for our brave first responders who stopped the shooter and helped the people to safety.’

Mayor Ken Fulk said in a statement on Saturday night: ‘Today is a tragic day for the City of Allen, our citizens, our friends and visitors who were at the Allen Premium Outlets. We know you are grieving, we are grieving.

‘Allen is a proud and safe city which makes today’s senseless act of violence even more shocking. However, I want to commend our police and fire departments for their quick response. 

‘Their thorough training not to hesitate to move toward the threat likely saved more lives today. We also want to thank all of our surrounding municipalities and law enforcement agencies for offering their assistance at the scene. 

‘This collective effort is what makes our North Texas communities united.’ 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott described the shooting as an ‘unspeakable tragedy.’

Witnesses have recalled the horrific moments they realized they were in the midst of a mass shooting – with one man, Steven Spainhouer, saying he rushed to desperately save a child who had been shot.

His own son was working at the H&M store when shots were fired.

Spainhouer told CBS News: ‘I never imagined in 100 years I would be thrust into the position of being the first first responder on the site to take care of people.

‘The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face.’  

He said she was already beyond saving.

Still set on saving the mess of victims, Spainhouer recalled how he then found another child, who survived the barrage of bullets by being covered by his protective mother, who he said was among eight to die by the gunman.

Spainhouer added: ‘When I rolled the mother over, he came out.

‘I asked him if he was OK and he said, ‘My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.’

‘Rather than traumatize him any more, I pulled him around the corner sat him down and he was covered from head to toe.  [It was] like somebody poured blood on him.’  

In recent years, Texas has witnessed some of the most gruesome and deadly mass shootings in America.

Many believe it’s partly because of the state’s loosened gun laws which have come into effect in the past few years.

In September 2021, a ‘constitutional carry’ law came into effect, allowing most Texas who legally own a firearm to carry it openly in public without obtaining a permit or training. 

At the time, Gov. Greg Abbott declared that the law ‘instilled freedom in the Lone Star State.’ 

Just eight months after the pro-gun law was passed, Uvalde, Texas experienced one of the bloodiest school shootings in US history at Robb Elementary School. A total of 19 children were killed, along with two teachers, by gunman Salvador Ramos. 

The gunman, 18, wrote ‘LOL,’ an acronym for ‘laugh out loud,’ on a whiteboard using the blood of his innocent victims. 

For years in Texas, Republicans have waved aside efforts to tighten gun laws after mass shootings, and even expanded gun rights after the 2019 attack on a Walmart in El Paso. 

On a summer’s night in July 2021, a group of gunmen stormed the home of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse and savagely beat him – before shooting him dead.

Haiti was already gripped by political unrest, but the assassination carried out by 28 foreign mercenaries marked the beginning of the country’s rapid descent into chaos, which today sees it overrun by gangs and gripped by horrific violence.

Just a month later on August 14, the Caribbean island was struck by a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake before tropical storm Grace barrelled through two days later.

Although Prime Minister Ariel Henry was named as Moïse’s unelected successor, he has been unable to establish any authority and ease the crisis.

Haiti is still reeling from the President’s assassination and the sucker-punch delivered by the natural disasters, and – as of February 2023 – has been left without any elected government officials, leading to Haiti being described as a failed state. 

Instead, hundreds of highly organised and extremely violent criminal groups have poured into the power vacuum left by the assassination that continues to go unpunished. Today, the gangs have a stranglehold over Haiti – carrying out brutal killings, gang rapes and kidnappings to control the population.

The United Nations says gangs have control of 80 percent of the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince, home to more than two million people. Others say it is 100 percent.

Murders, rapes and kidnappings have become commonplace, with UN Secretary General António Guterres saying violence in Haiti has reached levels similar to that of a country at war.

Meanwhile, Thursday saw the deaths of two local journalists confirmed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement that radio reporter Dumesky Kersaint died in a shooting in mid-April, while journalist Ricot Jean was found dead on Tuesday having been kidnapped on Monday.

His body was found the next day.

The UN’s special envoy for Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, said on Wednesday that in the first quarter of 2022, more than 690 criminal incidents that include killings, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings were reported. 

That number more than doubled to 1,647 in the same period this year, she said.

‘Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in Port-au-Prince and outside the capital,’ she told reporters, and called for the deployment of a foreign specialised force to be deployed to Haiti.

‘The Haitian people cannot wait. We need to act now,’ she said.

Vigilante killings 

With the government and the country’s small police force unable to get control of the situation, there are signs that Haitians are taking matters into their own hands, doling out violence of their own in the form of extreme vigilantism.

This violence came to a head this week. Armed with machetes, bottles, and rocks, residents in the hilly suburbs of Port-au-Prince fought back on Tuesday.

Scores of men in the Canape Vert neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince spent the night on roofs and patrolled entrances of their community – setting up makeshift checkpoints with big trucks spray-painted with the words: ‘Down with gangs.’

A day earlier, in a gruesome act of violence, an angry crowd dragged 13 suspected gangsters out of a police van and threw stones at their heads, covered them with tyres, poured gasoline over them – and burned them alive.

Six other suspected gang members in the nearby neighbourhood of Turgeau, who allegedly were shot by police, were also set on fire on Monday.

Pictures showed thick black smoke rising over the neighbourhoods as residents watching the grizzly scene covered their noses against the foul odour.

After the killings, Garry Desrosiers – spokesman for Haiti’s National Police (PNF), said he understands people’s anger and frustration over gang violence, but pleaded with people to ‘not take justice into your own hands’.

‘[The people have] been victimised. They’ve been suffering. The young women are being raped. Professionals are being kidnapped. That is not acceptable,’ he said.

Desrosiers said a limited number of police were on the scene when the killings happened, but that they couldn’t sustain the crowd, and the crowd reacted. 

He said anti-gang operations will continue to fight the criminal groups.

But local residents have become disillusioned after years of inaction from the national police, government and politicians – who in the past have used the gangs as a way to exert political control over the population.

Locals say they are determined to fight back against the gangs themselves – and are willing to go to war if that’s what it takes.

‘We are planning to fight and keep our neighbourhood clean of these savages,’ Jeff Ezequiel, a 37-year-old mechanic told reporters from the Associated Press. ‘The population is tired and frustrated.’

‘There’s nowhere to run,’ said Samuel, 25, who declined to give his last name out of fear of being killed by the gangs. ‘We have to stand and fight back.

‘If there has to be a war, I will be part of it, because authorities are not taking responsibility and are letting everyone die under their eyes.’ 

Crisis years in the making

So how did Haiti get to the point that its citizens feel duty-bound to take the fight to the gangs themselves? Haiti’s gang problems can be traced back even before Moïse’s assassination, to the turn of the 21st Century.

In 2004, the country endured a coup d’état – prompting UN intervention, and 2010 brought the earthquake that killed 250,000 people, as well as a cholera outbreak.

Then, in 2016, having never fully recovered from the quake, the island was struck by Hurricane Matthew which brought even more devastation.

With its economy in tatters, many young men began moving from hard-hit areas into cities such as Port-au-Prince in search of work to support their families.

Unable to find stable jobs, many were recruited into gangs which were steadily growing in influence and power. This began around 2018, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.

President Moïse was said to have benefited from this, including allegations that he allowed G-9 – now the country’s largest coalition of gangs – impunity in the capital, provided they targeted his political opponents.

This was demonstrated in a series of attacks between 2018 to 2020 on the capital’s impoverished neighbourhoods, which saw gangs carry out the rape and murder of hundreds of civilians without any form of police intervention.

Meanwhile, Moïse had been consolidating power in the years before his assassination – gutting democratic institutions and thus leaving any successor with no leverage to crack down on the growing violence in the wake of his death, or protect its people from the escalating atrocities.

Moïse was assassinated on July 7 2021, a killing officially blamed on Colombian mercenaries, but which many suspect was ordered by his rivals.

Questions over Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s friendship with one of the chief suspects – former justice official Joseph Felix Badio – remain unanswered. Several people have been arrested in connection with the killing.

The assassination was followed closely by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on August 14, 2021, killing more than 2,000 people and damaging over 130,000 buildings.

Rescue efforts were then hindered by Hurricane Grace on August 16, which flooded regions and threatened mudslides in areas hit by the earthquake.

Though Henry was named as Moïse’s successor (he is now both President and Prime Minister), he has not established any kind of authority and has even been unable to reach his own office because armed groups control the area around it.

With trust in the government extremely low, there are now thought to be around 200 gangs operating in Haiti including almost 100 in the capital alone, controlling everything from drugs and arms smuggling, to airports, factories and power plants.

Port-au-Prince has become a patchwork of territories whose brutal leaders – largely free of political influence – are free to operate as they please, warring over territory and revenging on each-other in an ever-escalating spiral of violence.

This has plunged Haiti – already the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country – into a dire humanitarian crisis, with hunger soaring and disease spreading.

With no one willing or able to quell the gang’s influence, there is no end in sight.

Orgy of violence

While gangs in Haiti had been allowed to act with impunity before Moïse’s assassination, the violence in the capital in particular has increased hugely since – with the gangs using fear and coercion to rule over their territories.

Hundreds of been killed, and victims have told of being forced to listen to their loved ones being raped until they pay ransoms, which can reach up to $1million. 

In one ten-day orgy of violence in Port-au-Prince back in July, gangs waged open warfare against each other in Cité Soleil – one of the capital’s slums home to 250,000 – launching raids into rival territory where they shot civilians on sight.

Gangsters stormed into people’s homes and raped any woman they found, before retreating back into their own territory – only to return again the next day.

The worst violence occurred on a single road leading out of the slum’s Nan Brooklyn district, as about 20,000 people fled.

As citizens attempted to escape down the main road, they were shot in the streets. Several children were killed, with their parents not even afforded the dignity of being allowed to give them a proper burial. Bodies were instead burned.

Across the 10 days, around 300 people were killed and at least 50 women and girls were subjected to rapes – many of which happened in front of their young children.

It is understood that the fighting broke out when the G-9 coalition launched an attempt to kill Jean Pierre Gabriel – the leader of the rival G-Pep gang.

G-Pep are rumoured to have connections with national political opposition and a major business figure, and have carved out a territory for themselves in the coastal Cité Soleil neighbourhood where they have been warring with G-9 since 2020.

G-9 members used construction equipment allegedly stolen from the government to excavate a route to Gabriel’s hideout in an attempt to kill him. 

Over the course of the 10-day conflict, heavily armed men hunting for Gabriel and his allies waged a brutal campaign of terror.

One five-year-old girl was forced to watch as her father was executed before her mother was gang-raped by four men.

Separately, a 19-year-old woman and mother-of-two was kidnapped and held for three days by a group of men who repeatedly raped her.

November 2022 saw another attack by the G-9 gang, this time on the Source-Matelas neighbourhood. 

In an interview, a 16-year-old girl told MailOnline how she was gang raped by three men whose mob marched her father and brother from their home to be murdered.

The girl – named only as Anne for her safety – said the attack happened during a massacre in her shanty town of Source-Matelas, near Port-au-Prince, on November 28 when gangs of men raided houses and raped and murdered those hiding inside. 

The massacre in Source-Matelas was sparked by the public execution of a local man called Jephté who gang leaders accused of being a police informant.

A horrific image was circulated on social media to intimidate others showing the victim seconds before his death, bound hand and foot inside a truck tyre.

A petrol canister sat beside him.

Such attacks have continued into 2023. Between February 28 and March 5, the community of Bel-Air in the capital saw armed clashes between the G-9 gang and the Bel-Air gang in which 148 people were killed or went missing.

More violence in Cité Soleil earlier in April saw nearly 70 people killed.

Despite the horrific violence, the Government and the police have failed to step in, seemingly powerless to bring an end to the attacks – with officers unable or unwilling to enter such neighbourhoods which are wholly controlled by the gangs.

Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier and ‘state-sanctioned’ gang attacks

However, the brutal actions of the gangs are also known to have had the government’s backing in the past.

A study by Harvard University‘s law school looked at three attacks from 2018 to 2020, all during Jovenel Moïse’s term as president.

Each attack saw gangs – with the support of state actors – enter impoverished neighbourhoods in the capital and unleash death on the population.

The report focuses on a 2018 attack in La Saline, a 2019 attack in Bel-Air, and a 2020 attack in Cité Soleil – the same slum as the 10-day attack in 2022.

All three attacks were led by a man named Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier, a former police officer who – along with several other gang leaders – today heads up the G-9 alliance, landing him on a UN Security Council’s sanctions list. 

Despite the sanctions against him, he cultivates a ‘Robin Hood’ image on social media – describing himself as a community leader who gives out cash when people are in need, clears garbage from the streets and protects people from rival gangs.

However, he is also accused of orchestrating some of Haiti’s worst recent massacres.

Cherizier has denied any connection to massacres, telling the Associated Press in 2019 that his enemies have linked him to the killings out of revenge. 

He said he got the nickname Barbecue as a child because his mother was a street vendor who sold fried chicken, not because he is accused of setting people on fire.

‘I would never massacre people in the same social class as me,’ Cherizier declared. He told the AP he takes inspiration from late dictator Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, who ruled Haiti with a bloody brutality as ‘president for life’ from 1957 to 1971.

‘I was born next door to La Saline. I live in the ghetto. I know what ghetto life is.’  

But Harvard’s study said all three amounted to crimes against humanity under international law, with 240 people being killed and 25 being raped in total. Hundreds of homes were also destroyed, displacing countless civilians.

Anti-government protests were common in each neighbourhood, the study says, with the gangsters from the G-9 coalition targeting them for this reason.

The 2018 attack in La Saline saw Cherizier and two other chiefs lead heavily armed gangs in several vehicles – including an armoured vehicle from the government’s Departmental Intervention Unit (BOID) – and carry out a 14-hour attack.

The gangsters moved through the neighbourhood, opening first with automatic weapons. The Harvard Study says that over the course of the 14-hours, 71 residents – including children and a ten-month-old child – were killed.

It said that some of the perpetrators even wore BOID uniforms and lured residents out of their homes by pretending to be part of an official police operation.

While many of the victims were found with bullet wounds, others were beheaded with machetes. At least eleven women were raped, including two gang-rapes.

Some corpses were removed from the scene of the attack to an unknown location. Others were thrown on to piles of garbage where pigs fed on them. Other bodies were dismembered and burned. 

At no point over the course of the 14-hour attack did police intervene to protect the residents of the neighbourhood, the report says, despite the Haitian National Police having several outposts within a mile of the impoverished community.

A second attack included in the report – on the Bel-Air neighbourhood in 2019 – saw the same gang led by Cherizier move in to quell anti-government protests.

When residents refused to remove barriers, 50 armed men were led into the neighbourhood on November 4 and carried out a similar attack to the first.

Residents were shot and homes were burned, killing 24 people. While BOID officers exchanged fire with gangsters at one point during the four-day attack, they did not give chase when they pulled back. No other intervention was recorded.

The third attack listed in the report once again saw Cherizier lead gang members into a neighbourhood – this time the Cité Soleil slum in 2020.

The slum is a historical stronghold of government opposition, with warring gangs controlling different areas within it, and is significant for politicians due to it being the site of large polling stations for its 250,000 inhabitants.

Violent gang fighting surged in the slum in 2020, in what the Harvard report said appeared to be a concerted effort to turn it into an area controlled by pro-government gangs.

This came as Cherizier convened a meeting of the 13 gang leaders – who would go on to form the G-9 alliance – to plan attacks on the neighbourhood.

The gangs assaulted multiple locations simultaneously, and five armoured vehicles blocked the Nan Brooklyn entrance to the deeply impoverished area of the city.

Survivors spoke of tear gas being fired indiscriminately, forcing residents to flee, before gunfire erupted from all directions.

Residents were shot, stabbed and hit with stones as they tried to escape. Some were beheaded, the Harvard report says, with bodies burned or thrown in a river.

In total, at least 145 people were killed and 98 homes were destroyed, while the G-9 was able to take control of more territory in the process.

Again, the report says there is no evidence of the PNF intervening.

The Harvard report outlines how the attacks amount to crimes against humanity, as they include murders and rapes of the civilian population, and points the finger at ‘several state actors’ who may be liable.

These include the national police and officials within the Moïse administration. 

‘There is a reasonable basis to conclude that state and non-state actors have committed crimes against humanity in Haiti during Jovenel Moïse’s presidency,’ the report states in its conclusion.

‘The brutal killings, rapes, and torture of civilians in La Saline, Bel-Air, and Cité Soleil appear to follow a widespread and systematic pattern that further state and organisational policies to control and repress communities at the forefront of government opposition.’

No charges were ever brought against the former president before his assassination.

Gang blockades fuel terminal

The government’s powerlessness was again demonstrated in September 2022 when the G-9 – opposed to President Henry – blocked the entrance to the vital Varreux fuel terminal, which supplies most of the oil products in Haiti.

Already gripped by price inflation that put food and fuel out of reach for many, and by protests that brought society to a breaking point, the blockade plunged the country into yet another, deeper crisis.

Haiti was left without gasoline and diesel, while businesses and hospitals were forced to shut their doors – just as a cholera epidemic broke out across the country after three years without a reported case.

The blockade also created widespread shortages of goods including drinking water. 

Gangsters dug trenches and littered shipping containers at the entrance to the terminal to protest an announcement by Henry that the government would cut fuel subsidies due to their high cost – sparking fury across Haiti.

The gang also demanded Henry’s resignation.

The crisis prompted Henry to call on the international community to help the Caribbean nation as its day-to-day activities were crippled.

A month into the crisis, the United Nations proposed that a ‘humanitarian corridor’ be established into Port-au-Prince to allow for deliveries of vital supplies to citizens.

The UN said at the time that the blockade on the fuel terminal ‘has led to the closure of health centres over the last weeks now, and caused the interruption of water treatment services,’ posing a problem to efforts to prevent cholera.

‘The crisis that Haiti is going through affects the population throughout the territory and the most vulnerable people are the first to suffer from the blockage.’

The blockade prompted the UN Security Council to unanimously adopt a resolution demanding an immediate end to violence and criminal activity in Haiti. 

The sanctions resolution named only a single Haitian: Cherizier.

The sanctions were the first authorised by the UN’s most powerful body since 2017 and the resolution’s approval by all 15 council nations, whose divisions have been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, demonstrated a rare sign that council members can work together.

‘Cherizier and his G-9 gang confederation are actively blocking the free movement of fuel from the Varreux fuel terminal – the largest in Haiti,’ the resolution said.

‘His actions have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and humanitarian crisis in Haiti.’ It also said he ‘has planned, directed, or committed acts that constitute serious human rights abuses.’

The report also referenced the three attacks laid out in the Harvard report. 

While serving in the police, it said, Cherizier planned and participated in the November 2018 attack by an armed gang on the capital’s La Saline neighbourhood.

He also led armed groups ‘in coordinated, brutal attacks in Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods throughout 2018 and 2019’ and in a five-day attack in multiple neighbourhoods in the capital in 2020.

Civilians were killed and houses set on fire, the resolution said.

The fuel terminal finally reopened in November 2022 after police regained control. Gunfire was heard in the area as officers battled the gang members held up there – with neither the government or police saying if anyone was killed in the fighting.

Rumours circulated that the government had negotiated with the G-9 – something that officials in Haiti denied.

But after two months, the damage was done. The incident demonstrated to all in Haiti that the country’s powerful gangs have the power to put their boot on the country’s neck and bring it to a standstill – and plunge it deeper into crisis.

Kidnappings 

While Haiti’s gangs use rape and murder as a way to intimidate the population, one of the most prevalent crimes has become kidnapping.

Reported kidnappings soared to more than 1,200 last year, double what was reported the previous year, according to the UN – although the true figure is believed to be even higher, with many going unreported.

Kidnappings are said to be the speciality of the G-Pep gang, which is understood to have recently allied with another by the name of 400 Mawozo – Haiti’s largest stand-alone gang which reportedly has a waiting list to join.

400 Mawozo and its allies were thought to be responsible for 80 percent of abductions that took place between June 2021 to September 2021 alone.

The FBI’s Miami office says it has seen a 300 percent increase in kidnappings for the first three months of 2023 when compared to the same period last year.

Gangsters target morning rush hour as peak kidnapping time, snatching people off the streets before demanding ransom, according to the BBC.

Gedeon Jean, of Haiti’s Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, said that most victims are returned alive if the ransom is paid – but are brutally treated.

She said: ‘Men are beaten and burned with materials like melted plastic. Women and girls are subject to gang rape. 

‘This situation spurs relatives to find money to pay ransom. Sometimes kidnappers call the relatives so they can hear the rape being carried out on the phone.’

In one case in 2021, reported by The Guardian, a man named Joseph was driving through Haiti’s capital when two cars suddenly skidded to a halt – one behind him and one in front of him – boxing him in.

He told the newspaper that six men with flak jackets jumped out of the vehicles pointing rifles at him, before they forced him from his car, bound and blindfolded him, and took him to a safehouse.

Under duress, he said the kidnappers forced his phone code from him and contacted his brother, setting a $1.1million ransom for his release.

Eventually, his friends and family were able to pay $15,000, and he was released from captivity. ‘They set the price so high that you are scared, so that you will pay whatever you can,’ Joseph told the newspaper.

The issue of kidnapping made global headlines that same year, when 17 foreign missionaries – 16 Americans and one Canadian – were kidnapped from a bus. Five children were also taken by the armed gang – members of 400 Mawozo.

The kidnapping sparked anger in Haiti and abroad, prompting even the FBI to get involved. The missionaries were all eventually released, but it remains unclear whether any ransom had been paid to the kidnappers.

Speaking at the time, Joseph told The Guardian: ‘There’s obviously lots of coverage because they are American, but Haitians are getting kidnapped every day. Sometimes it makes the news, but sometimes nobody cares.’

Collapsed democracy

At the start of this year – on January 10, the terms of Haiti’s last democratically elected politicians expired overnight.

Only ten remaining senators had been symbolically representing the nation’s 11 million people in recent years, because the country had failed to hold legislative elections since October 2019.

The end of their terms left Haiti without a single lawmaker in its House or Senate, and without any officially elected lawmakers in government.

The alarming development solidified what some call Henry’s de facto dictatorship, his administration nominally in charge of the country wracked by gang violence.

The Parliament building in downtown Port-au-Prince has sat deserted, with only security guards at the gate. Similar scenes have been evident outside Haiti’s non-functioning Supreme Court and electoral commission. 

‘It’s a very grim situation,’ Alex Dupuy, a Haitian-born sociologist at Wesleyan University, said at the time. He described the democratic crisis as ‘one of the worst […] that Haiti has had since the Duvalier dictatorship.’

The bloody regime of Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, who fled the country in 1986, marked the last time Haiti lacked elected officials.

Henry has promised to hold elections in 2023, saying on January 1 that the Supreme Court would be restored and a provisional electoral council tasked with setting a reasonable date for elections.

In February, he formally appointed the transition council charged with ensuring that the long-awaited elections – that were meant to be held in 2021 – go forward. ‘It is the beginning of the end of the dysfunction of our democratic institutions,’ Henry  said. 

However, many doubt the creation of the council will help the government hold elections this year, as gangs continue to fight and kill.

The ‘High Transition Council’s’ three members are Calixte Fleuridor with Haiti’s Protestant Federation, who will represent civil society; Mirlande Manigat, a law professor and former first lady and presidential candidate who will represent political parties; and Laurent Saint-Cyr, president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, who will represent the private sector.

The council also will be responsible for working with government officials to reform Haiti’s constitution, implement economic reforms and reduce gang violence.

But Henry stressed that elections can’t be held until Haiti becomes safer: ‘It would not be acceptable for the state to ask politicians to campaign if the state cannot guarantee their security,’ he said.

With the brutal violence continuing, when this will be is anyone’s guess. 

What next? 

This week, the UN’s special envoy to Haiti urged the immediate deployment of a specialised international force to counter the escalating gang violence, and to develop the Caribbean nation’s understaffed and ill-equipped police force.

However, the United States and Canada again showed no interest in leading a force –  and neither did any member of the UN Security Council.

Maria Isabel Salvador, who took over the UN job this month, warned that delays could lead to a spillover of insecurity in the Caribbean and Latin America. 

She cited police and UN figures to illustrate ‘the shocking increase in criminality in Haiti’ which, she said, comprise of homicides, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings.

Salvador stressed that without restoring a minimum level of security, it is impossible to move forward toward the elections Henry is supposedly pushing for.

She told reporters she was disappointed that no country has offered to lead a force since UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued an urgent appeal last October for international help at the request of Henry and the country’s Council of Ministers.

At the council meeting, neither the US – which has been criticised for previous interventions in Haiti, nor Canada – which the U.S. tried to convince to head the force, showed interest in taking the lead. 

The international community has instead opted to impose sanctions and send military equipment and other resources – interventions which many say are only making the dire situation in the country worse.

Salvador, a former Ecuadorian government official, told the council ‘we need to find innovative ways to define the force to support the Haitian National Police.’

Expanding on this idea to reporters later, the UN envoy said the international force, comprising police personnel, should help Haitian officers separate gangs and little by little restore security in the country.

She said she would like to see countries in Latin America and the Caribbean get more involved and lead the force, noting that some have past experience.

The spillover from the escalating violence is already having an impact in the neighbouring Dominican Republic and the region including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru where Haitians fleeing the country have arrived, she said, adding that increasing gang violence will worsen the impact.

‘Regional crises require regional reactions and actions,’ she stressed. Salvador lamented that this takes time, ‘and the Haitian people cannot wait.’