The Road To Seguin: Trading Gang Violence for Other Dangers

The road to Seguin attracts more and more passengers fleeing gang violence on National Route 2 linking Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes, but its deplorable condition poses many risks

In Kenscoff, a town perched 1,500 meters above Port-au-Prince, is a road that leads to Seguin – a small village of several thousand inhabitants located about three hours from Jacmel by motorbike – and almost half a day on foot.

But if Seguin is in the news, it is above all because it is the shortest passage that leads to the districts of Jacmel, Cayes-Jacmel, Marigot, etc… and to the Great South in general. This raised path crosses a mountain canyon to connect the West and South-East departments.

A biker carries three children with difficulty on the perilous road to Seguin, August 2024. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost

Since the southern entrance to the capital has been under the total control of armed gangs, the road to Seguin has become increasingly popular. This traffic comes with its own risks: accidents are very frequent due to the deplorable state of the road.

“We’ve lost count of the number of motorcycles that have crashed there or ended up at the bottom of the cliff,” Kendy, a motorcycle taxi driver who says he has been frequenting Seguin for two decades now.

Two bikers collide as they climb the hill commonly known as Pierre Paul on the Kenscoff road.

Added to this is the absence of any medical centers in the locality. “Residents go to the hospital when they no longer have any other option,” confides Alte Adrien, the CASEC of Nouvelle Touraine, the first municipal section of Kenscoff. “They always wait until their case is serious enough to require a doctor’s intervention. At this point, if the person can sit down, they are taken to Fermathe on a motorcycle. Otherwise, they are transported on an improvised stretcher,” he explains.

Men carry a coffin in the rain on the perilous road leading to Seguin in August 2024

Cadavres are also transported on motorcycles. The difference is that they are wrapped in pieces of sheet metal to prevent the bodies from slipping.

The inhabitants of Seguin do not go to great lengths for their dead. They bury them less than 48 hours after their passing. This way of doing things is all the more reinforced because there is no morgue in the locality. Instead, there are shops where coffins are sold like hot cakes.

Another rather profitable activity, in addition to the sale of coffins, is the transport ensured solely by motorcycle drivers. They transport people, but above all goods.

Because before it became an escape for other members of the population, the road from Kenscoff to Seguin has been a commercial route long prized by farmers. For a trip from Ca Jacques to Pétion-Ville, Kendy says he earns 5,000 gourdes for three bags of provisions.

Pedestrians assist the motorcycle drivers to climb rocky slopes under the curious gaze of local residents, on the road to Seguin, in August 2024.

A “madan sara” catching her breath along this endless pile of stones reports that she had to pay another driver almost 7,500 gourdes in order for him to transport her goods to Pétion-Ville.

Drivers justify their exorbitant prices due to the poor condition of the road. “There are too many cliffs,” underlines one of them, “which means that we risk our lives by taking this road every day.”

Pedestrians are helping a motorcyclist climb the slopes near the cliffs on the road leading to Seguin in August 2024.

Faced with this difficult reality, Alte Adrien considers that taking the road to Seguin is a real obstacle course. Especially at Ca Jacques, a hillside that leads to Jacmel through Seguin. This is where you’ll find the markers that demarcate the West from the South-East. This is also the most dangerous part of the route, because the slightest driving error can lead to an accident.

Alte Adrien, CASEC of Nouvelle Touraine, first municipal section of Kenscoff.

When the national penitentiary was stormed by gangs in March 2024, CASEC Adrien says that prisoners came to settle at Ca Jacques to rob passers-by. “It was members of the population, he said, who stood up to them until they got rid of them.”

Because, explains Alte Adrien, the absence of police in the area forces residents to fight insecurity alone. Over a distance of almost 50 kilometers, from the Kenscoff police station to Peredo, a town in the commune of Marigot, AyiboPost did not observe any police presence on August 15, 2024.

Due to lack of resources, traders carry their huge baskets of vegetables on their heads. Drenched in sweat, breathing heavily and with tired faces, those who cannot carry their loads themselves leave them to their horses or donkeys.

A young man carries a bag of food products.

But whether they decide to pay or not, there are consequences. To ensure a minimum profit, merchants who agree to take a motorcycle increase the prices of their products at the market. Those who don’t have the money to pay a driver are often forced to watch their produce waste away before their eyes.

On August 15, AyiboPost observed enormous food waste at Ca Jacques. Many products were rotting due to lack of roads to transport them.

A man shows how many peppers are wasted due to transportation difficulties caused by poor road conditions, August 2024.

Alte Adrien underlines in this regard that their region is one of the main vegetable-growing areas of the country. “We produce a lot of vegetables,” he explains, “and many other regions depend on us for supplies.”

In this sense, the politician, without real power in the face of circumstances, asks state authorities to look into the need to build the road to Seguin.

According to several residents, this road was hardly there before the governance of the late President René Préval. “It was he who started the work to trace it,” some report.

But the road project never came to fruition. On the contrary, it is the residents who endeavor to carry out work to improve this leg of the road themselves. Posted in different locations, men fill the holes with rocks collected here and there. You can encounter them over 10 or 20 kilometers. There is no pre-established distance. But the fact is that they practically set up toll booths for this purpose.

One of the toll stations established by local residents on the Seguin road in August 2024.

AyiboPost went through up to 15 of them as part of this report. Each time you have to pay between 100 and 300 gourdes to have the right of passage.

In addition to a police presence that he considers necessary, Alte Adrien therefore pleads in favor of the construction of the road from Kenscoff to Seguin. Because, with a road in good condition, he is convinced, “the other infrastructure will follow.”

By Jean Feguens Regala & Rebecca Bruny

Image de couverture : A biker climbs the road leading to Seguin with difficulty, August 2024. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost

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