The Dominican Republic's government has announced that it is closing all borders with neighboring Haiti. The closing of the border started today in a dispute over a canal on the Haitian side that would use water from a river along their frontier.
 
President Luis Abinader said that air, sea, and land borders would remain shuttered until necessary, as last-minute talks between the countries had failed to head off the closure. It is a rare move for the Dominican Republic and could hit economies in both countries, though it will be most acutely felt in Haiti.
 
The closure is a response to the excavation of a canal by a farming group on the Haitian side that targets waters from the Massacre River, which runs along the border shared by the two countries on the island of Hispaniola.