The Dajabón River (also called Massacre River) (; ) is a river which forms the northernmost part of the international border between the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

and

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

Etymology

The river was named by the Arawak-speaking indigenous inhabitants of the island, the

Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...

s, as "Dahabōn", which derivates from dajaus, a freshwater fish that lives in the Caribbean region. The French version of the river, "Rivière du Massacre" (River of Massacre), refers to a battle in 1728 where Spanish settlers killed thirty French buccaneers near the river. This name became popular after being the site of many killings during the Parsley Massacre—though the event was not, contrary to popular belief, the origin of its name.

Geography

It has its source in the Central Cordillera at Pico de Gallo mountain in the

. Further downstream through the Dominican province of Dajabón until it reaches the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, then it runs along the Haitian department of Northeast (left bank) and the Dominican provinces of Dajabón and Monte Cristi (right bank), then flows into Bay of Manzanillo and into the Atlantic Ocean west of the Dominican town of Pepillo Salcedo. It has a length of 55 kilometers of which a little more than 7KM are shared with Haiti. The Dominican town of Dajabón faces the Haitian town of Ouanaminthe. In recent years it has lost its flow due to environmentally unsustainable practices, in particular the destruction of the forest due to massive felling without subsequent reforestation, and the practice of indiscriminately removing sand from the bed of the channel without any technical criteria.

History

In 2023, a dispute over water in the Dajabon River led the Dominican President

Luis Abinader Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona (; born 12 July 1967) is a Dominicans, Dominican economist, businessman, and politician who has served as the 54th president of the Dominican Republic since 2020. He was the Modern Revolutionary Party candidate for ...

to close the border with Haiti. In 2024, disputes continue between the two countries over the use and management of the Masacre River's water resources. Issues such as border delimitation, river navigation and environmental preservation have exacerbated these tensions.

References

* The Columbia Gazetteer of North America. 2000.
CIA map
Rivers of the Dominican Republic Rivers of Haiti International rivers of North America Dominican Republic–Haiti border Border rivers {{Haiti-river-stub

Etymology

Geography

History

See also

References