13 Feb Serious Unrest Persists in Haiti

Mark Wallace (right), Executive Director of CH Global, and chairperson of the UB Global board, provided the following report on the growing unrest in Haiti. A team from Canada, scheduled to visit Haiti this month, may need to postpone their trip. We have about 28 UB churches in Haiti, and Pastor Oliam Richard is the superintendent.

Protests have been building in the major centers and highways around the country. For the past 5 days, it has not been possible for the CH Global staff or Pastor Richard to travel more than a block form their homes due to roadblocks in the street. As you can imagine, this is very difficult for everyone. Pastor Richard could not go to church on Sunday. People cannot get out to buy cooking fuel and food.

Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in Haiti, and our brothers and sisters are accustomed to having disruptions in their lives. Often it blows over after one or two days, and things clear up quickly. This time it hasn’t.

I have exchanged messages with Pastor Richard and the CH Haiti team, and they all tell me that it would be impossible to host the team unless things improve dramatically. The Canadian Government also updated its travel advisory for Haiti today to “Avoid Unnecessary Travel.”

The US State Department issued this travel alert on February 12. It warns of unpredictable and sporadic demonstration. Travelers are sometimes followed and violently attacked and robbed shortly after leaving the Port-au-Prince airport.

Restrictions and other measures have been taken to protect US Embassy personnel. Family members of Embassy personnel under age 18 have been ordered the leave the country.