Bread and butter issues can feel distant when state security crumbles. But the kidnapping of Haiti’s top security official sends a stark message that the rule of law is hanging by a thread in a nation already battered by poverty and instability.
Armed assailants stormed a convoy in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, seizing the head of Haiti’s National Security Council. The brazen daylight attack, which left two bodyguards wounded, has sent shockwaves through a government already struggling to contain gang violence that has paralysed the capital. The UK Foreign Office swiftly condemned the abduction and called on Commonwealth nations to rally behind Haiti, a fellow member state. “This is an assault on democracy itself,” a spokesperson said. “The Commonwealth must act to protect one of its own.”
But what does this mean for the ordinary Haitian? The kidnapping is not an isolated event. It is the latest symptom of a country where inflation has soared past 40 per cent, where the cost of a bag of rice doubles every few months, and where parents cannot afford to send children to school. Gang violence has forced thousands from their homes, turning neighbourhoods into ghost towns. The security chief’s abduction will only deepen the sense that no one is safe, not even those tasked with keeping order.
The UK’s call for Commonwealth action is a welcome echo of solidarity, but words alone will not fill empty bellies or secure streets. Haiti’s economy, already fragile before a series of natural disasters and political upheavals, is now haemorrhaging jobs. Remittances from the diaspora, a lifeline for many families, are dwindling as global inflation tightens belts abroad. The kidnapping will further scare off the foreign investment that might create work and stabilise prices.
Trade unions in Haiti have long warned that without a functioning state, workers cannot bargain for fair wages or safe conditions. The security chief’s disappearance is a reminder that the state is failing even in its basic duties. The UK must push for more than statements. It should use its influence in the Commonwealth to coordinate practical support: funding for police training, aid to keep food markets open, and pressure on financial institutions to free up frozen assets that could stop the economic bleed.
For the Haitian people, this is another blow to their daily struggle. The price of a loaf of bread has tripled in some areas. A mother in Port-au-Prince told me: “We don’t know who to turn to. The government cannot protect us, and the gangs run our streets.”
The UK’s call for Commonwealth action must be the start, not the end. It must translate into concrete steps that address both the security vacuum and the economic despair that fuels it. Otherwise, Haiti will remain a cautionary tale of what happens when the state withdraws and leaves its people to fend for themselves.
