Kormakitis was a closed society in which residents spoke Sanna, while their kids went to school not knowing Greek. That’s how the language was preserved, Zonias said.
A U.S. Department of State official attending an OAS meeting on Haiti’s security crisis said that the Washington-based group has a critical role to play in the nation.“Much more can and should be done,” said Barbara Feinstein, deputy assistant secretary for Caribbean Affairs and Haiti at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Feinstein echoed comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Haiti.“Why do we have an OAS, if the OAS can’t put together a mission to handle the most critical region in our hemisphere?” Rubio said Wednesday as he proposed building a mission with regional partners. “We’re grateful to the Kenyans, but this is a regional problem, and it should have a regional solution.”OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro on Thursday acknowledged that the Kenya-led mission was struggling and said that the organization was working on new initiatives.
“There is a need for a new structure for the mission,” he said.Last year, the U.S. and Haiti called for it to be replaced with a U.N. peacekeeping mission, but the U.N. Security Council
Thursday’s OAS meeting was held just hours after gangs launched another attack in Haiti’s central Artibonite region.
Gunmen stormed a church in Préval, killing 22 people, including an 86-year-old pastor who was beheaded, according to Bertide Horace, spokesperson for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite.While some experts have said the withdrawal of U.S. aid may open the door for rivals such as Russia, whose mercenaries have been accused of
in the country, some say USAID has left a hole too large to be filled by others.“It will be difficult to find takers for the projects left behind by USAID,” said Fatimata Touré, a development specialist and director of the Research, Study and Training Group civic group in Mali.
For more on Africa and development:The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s