Canada announced on Sunday new aid to Haiti and the imposition of sanctions against former Haitian President Michel Martelly and the two former prime ministers accused of profiting from the work of armed gangs.
“The sanctioned people benefit directly from the work of the gangs and are associated with a system of corruption,” explained Mélanie Joly, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs during a press conference in Djerba on the sidelines of the Francophonie summit.
The two former prime ministers subject to these sanctions, which will cause the freezing of all their properties in Canada, are Laurent Lamothe and Jean Henry Céant, the Canadian government said.
Similar sanctions had been announced in early November against the president of the Senate and one of his predecessors, also accused of having ties to organized crime.
Help is needed
Canada also announced several grants for Haiti on Sunday for a total amount of 16.5 million Canadian dollars, in particular to help the country deal with a cholera epidemic and fight corruption and impunity.
Eight million dollars will be paid in particular to meet the needs of the populations affected by the security, health and food crisis.
This aid is “necessary to provide water, food and the necessary health care to combat cholera,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained.
The Caribbean country has been trapped for years in a deep economic, political and security crisis, and the assassination of President Moïse has made the situation profoundly worse, with gangs increasingly in control.
The population is also facing a new cholera epidemic, just three years after eradicating a previous cholera epidemic that killed more than 10,000 people.
Source: BFM TV
