The United Nations-backed security mission to Haiti is set to end in less than a month. But for Haitians enduring the violence, safety is not coming fast enough.
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00:00A perilous road to safety, but for residents of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, it is
00:08their only option.
00:11Violent gangs have taken over, controlling an estimated 80 percent of the city, including
00:16the major roadways in and out.
00:20The only escape is this rocky path through the mountains.
00:33Port-au-Prince has been under a state of emergency since March, now expanded to include the entire
00:39Caribbean nation.
00:41The United Nations estimates over half a million people have been displaced from the violence.
00:48And almost half the population of 11 million is going hungry.
00:53The country's newly formed government is working to restore order.
00:57But as gangs extend their reach, Haitians have had enough.
01:14Visiting the country during this turmoil, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met
01:18with Haiti's interim Prime Minister, Gary Coney, and announced an additional 45 million
01:24U.S. dollars of humanitarian aid.
01:27Blinken also called for a U.N.-backed security mission here to be extended, a deployment
01:32of several hundred Kenyan police officers meant to leave the country next month.
01:37The mission itself needs to be renewed, and that's what we're working on right now.
01:43But we also want to make sure that we have something that is reliable, that's sustainable,
01:50and we'll look at every option to do that.
01:55So a peacekeeping operation would be one such option.
01:59I think there are others.
02:01For those displaced by the violence, the security mission and the visit from Blinken are seen
02:06as ineffective.
02:07The U.S. is not interested in the security mission, the U.S. is not interested in the
02:14security mission.
02:15The U.S. is not interested in the renewal of the security mission, because what's in
02:18it for us?
02:19We don't have anything.
02:20We don't have anything.
02:21We don't have anything.
02:22We don't have anything.
02:23We don't have anything.
02:24We don't have anything.
02:25We don't have anything.
02:26We don't have anything.
02:27We don't have anything.
02:28We don't have anything.
02:29We don't have anything.
02:30We don't have anything.
02:31We don't have anything.
02:32We don't have anything.
02:33We don't have anything.
02:34We don't have anything.
02:35We don't have anything.
02:37Rather than wait for order to be restored, residents of Port-au-Prince have turned to
02:42the mountains, far from the gangs, police and geopolitical players.
02:47The path may be perilous, and there is no guarantee of safety on the other side.
02:53But for these Haitians desperate for peace, it's the only way forward.
02:58James Linden Harrell-Hughes for Taiwan Plus.