Sizzla Condemns Jamaican Troops In Haiti

Reggae star Sizzla has denounced Jamaica’s deployment of troops to Haiti to combat gang violence.

In September 2024, over two dozen Jamaican soldiers and police officers were sent to Haiti, joining forces with Kenyan-led troops and other personnel from Belize to support police and military in combating gangs that control 80% of Port-au-Prince. According to AP, this deployment is part of a larger commitment of 170 soldiers and 30 police officers pledged by Jamaica.

However, in an Instagram post on Friday, the Why Should I singer expressed outrage at Jamaica’s involvement in the United Nations-backed mission, framing it as an act of betrayal against shared Caribbean heritage.

“Haitians and Jamaicans are brothers and sisters, why are you setting them up to fight each other,” he wrote. “This is so wrong, and if u can have the Caribbean islands fighting each other what’s the sense of the Caricom passport. No Caribbean island should be fighting with each other. We are all black people. We are all Africans.”

The singer continued: “Jamaicans must come home from Haiti and stop killing your bloodlines, Haitians are our bloodline brothers and sisters and its a sin to be killing each other…Get out of Haiti now. There is no Haitians in Jamaica doing that. What did Haitians do to Jamaica for us to be there with guns killing ourselves.”

He also highlighted the historical ties between the two nations, referencing Jamaican-born Haitian revolutionary Dutty Boukman as a symbol of shared struggles against slavery. “Remember it was a Jamaican who went there to Haiti to liberate them from slavery, Hon Dr bookman, so why are we going against our ancestors duty? Get home.”

Sizzla, who identified himself in the Instagram post as a “Maroon Regent Crown Prince,” further called on Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness to immediately recall the troops, stating, “Get my Jamaican children home out of Haiti and do not set us up to fight each other. We are not your slaves; we are sovereign.”

More than 5,600 people were killed in gang violence in Haiti last year alone, the BBC reported.

The number of people internally displaced by gang violence in Haiti has tripled to more than one million, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Tuesday.

While the mission involving Jamaica and Kenya aims to stabilize the violence-ravaged nation, concerns over insufficient resources and personnel have prompted discussions about transitioning to a full U.N. peacekeeping mission.