March 7, 2024 – BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: Belize’s climate data collection capabilities and capacity to withstand natural hazards are to be improved through a grant for approximately USD1.26 million from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). This financing will facilitate the implementation of technical assistance to strengthen a multi-hazard forecasting and early warning system for the Belize River watershed.
stuck at the port, according to the UN’s World Food Programme, which said it had suspended its maritime transport service, citing “insecurity”. The UN humanitarian affairs agency has warned that the country’s health system is “nearing collapse”.
How gangs came to dominate Haiti The gangs in the violence-wracked city stepped up their attacks when Mr Henry left for a regional summit last week. Mr Henry attempted to fly back to Port-au-Prince on Tuesday but ended up in the US territory of Puerto Rico instead.
He could not land in the Haitian capital because its international airport was closed as soldiers repelled attempts by gunmen to seize it. Civil aviation authorities in the neighbouring Dominican Republic also turned the prime minister’s plane away, saying that they had not been provided with the necessary flight plan.
Mr Henry has not given any public statements since he visited Kenya, where he met President William Ruto to salvage a deal for the east African country to lead a multi-national force to help restore order in Haiti. The two leaders signed a reciprocal agreement which paves the way for 2,000 Kenyan police officers to be sent to Haiti but a Kenyan opposition politician says he will challenge the deal in court.
Meanwhile, several Kenyan police officers who had volunteered for the deployment have opted out for their safety. Gangs in Port-au-Prince have taken advantage of Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s absence to unleash a series of co-ordinated attacks.
Among their targets was the airport – which they want to control to prevent Mr Henry from flying back in – and two prisons, from which they freed thousands of inmates. At least six police officers have been killed while the National Police Academy has also been destroyed.
The bodies of several prisoners were also left lying on the streets after the storming of the National Penitentiary. The violence has caused Haiti’s humanitarian crisis to deteriorate even further. Aid groups estimate that more than 15,000 people have fled their homes in the past week.
The gangs have not said what their aim is beyond the ouster of Mr Henry. Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, a former police officer who leads an alliance of gangs called G9, has threatened that if Mr Henry does not step down there will be a “civil war” which he said could end in “genocide”.
Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres estimates that at least 2,300 people were killed in the violence in 2023 in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of Cite Soleil alone, home to 9% of the capital’s population. The project, under the Bank’s Caribbean Action for Resilience Enhancement (CARE) Programme, funded by the European Union through the 11th European Development Fund’s (EDF) Intra-African Caribbean Pacific – European Union- (ACP-EU) Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Programme, will support improved weather and climate data collection, modelling and analysis, and climate and disaster risk assessment.
It will enhance the institutional capacity of key stakeholders, such as the National Meteorological Service (NMS) and the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO), to deliver effective early warning and climate services. Belize is prone to hazards such as floods, droughts, and tropical storms.
Recent hurricanes and heavy rainfall that led to flooding, revealed weaknesses in the country’s early warning system (EWS). CDB Division Chief, Environmental Sustainability, Ms. Valerie Isaac, said the project will result in an improved observation network, modelling, and analysis tools, allowing Belize’s NMS and NEMO to collaborate to perform more effective risk analyses, develop multi-hazard maps, and establish reliable forecasting and warning systems while improving the technical capacity of staff members.
“Climate and hazard data are critical to understanding and assessing potential disaster risks and impacts on economic sectors, as well as to designing and implementing robust early warning systems to save lives and minimise loss and damage of properties and livelihoods. They can support decision-making and planning for adequate disaster risk management intervention,” Ms.
Isaac said. She added, “The project will ultimately help to reduce the vulnerability of the people living in the watershed and Belize overall.” CARE is a five-year, 14 million initiative to support disaster risk management and climate resilience building efforts in CDB”s 19 Borrowing Member Countries.
The Programme provides grant financing to support initiatives aimed at improving governance on disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. Financing is also used for strengthening evidence-based and gender-sensitive decision-making and financial response to the effects of climate change and natural hazards and enhancing community infrastructure and livelihood resilience to climate change and natural hazards.
