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| - Haiti, where seven Catholic clergy including a French priest and nun, were kidnapped Sunday, is one of the world's poorest countries, crippled by political instability and vulnerable to natural disasters. Here are some key facts about the troubled Caribbean nation which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Once France's richest colony, Haiti became the world's first black-led republic in 1804 after a revolt by slaves on whose backs that wealth was built. But only after its charismatic revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture was tricked and imprisoned by Napoleon, who reintroduced slavery. After the eventual defeat of the French, Haiti suffered a succession of brutal dictatorships, interrupted only by brief stints of democracy and foreign occupation. From 1957 until 1986 the notorious Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son Jean Claude "Baby Doc" ruled with their ruthless Tontons Macoutes militia. Driven out by a popular revolt, "Baby Doc" went into exile in France for 25 years before returning to Haiti in 2011, where he died three years later. Former Roman Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president in the country's first free elections in 1990. But he was overthrown in a coup, reinstated, ousted a second time and finally sent into exile under pressure from the United States, France and Canada. Rene Preval came to power in elections in 2006, followed by former carnival singer Michel Martelly in 2011. Current president Jovenel Moise won a disputed election in 2017 and was soon hit by protests triggered by fuel shortages that turned violent. He was further undermined when in 2019 court auditors investigating where $2 billion in aid from a Venezuelan oil fund had gone found that companies run by Moise before he became president were "at the heart of an embezzling scheme". Moise insists he can stay on as head of state until February 7, 2022 -- an interpretation of the constitution rejected by the opposition. The businessman has been governing by decree without any parliamentary checks for the past year. The opposition, who have named judge Joseph Mecene Jean-Louis their leader, have led protests calling for Moise to go now. Amid the instability, Moise plans to hold a constitutional referendum in June. With more than three-fifths of the population of 11.2 million living on less than $2 a day, Haiti is among the poorest countries in the world. It is also one of the least developed, ranking 170 out of 189 on the UNDP's Human Development Index which compares longevity, education and income per capita. A third of the country's inhabitants need emergency aid and a million are living in severe food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme. The economy depends on remittances from the country's growing diaspora, mainly in the US, Chile and Canada, which represented in 2019 more than a third of GDP. But now the diaspora is itself affected by the economic fallout of the pandemic. Haiti is vulnerable to natural disasters, which have ravaged the country over the last decade and to which 96 percent of its inhabitants are exposed, according to the World Bank. In 2010 more than 200,000 people died and 1.5 million were left homeless after an earthquake devastated the capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region. More than 10,000 then died in a deadly cholera epidemic introduced by infected Nepalese UN peacekeepers sent in after the disaster. Billions of dollars of international aid were promised, but much of it failed to materialise. Political instability also hampered recovery. A further 500 people died when the country was hit by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the strongest in a decade. It also caused $2 billion in damage. ang-eab/mjs
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