Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, is under siege as gang violence rages out of control.
The police clash with heavily armed gangs, who attack strategic locations, including the presidential palace, police stations and prisons. The escalation of the crisis is recorded in the absence of Prime Minister Ariel Henri, who the gangs demand to resign.
Public administration services and schools in the capital have been closed for days, while the international airport is not operating, raising concerns about supplies for the population of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Access to the health system is almost impossible, as hospitals have been attacked by gangs that have forced medical staff and patients to flee, not excluding even “newborns”, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
According to IOM calculations, 362,000 people, more than half of whom are children, are forcibly displaced, a number that has increased by leaps and bounds (+15%) since the beginning of the year.
Authorities declared a week ago a state of emergency in the country’s western prefecture and a nighttime curfew, a measure that is difficult to implement.
ANARCHY IN HAITI: THE WHOLE STORY
As the already impoverished nation of Haiti descends into deeper chaos and anarchy of historic proportions, the question on everyone’s lips is, “what is going on?!”
Haiti is a Caribbean nation located in the Greater Antilles archipelago. The… pic.twitter.com/E3AaQJQPkE
— JC Okechukwu (@jcokechukwu) March 10, 2024
Wherever he goes, the staff of the embassies goes
Several countries are removing some of their embassy staff, such as the US, which removed diplomats, and Germany, which hastily removed its ambassador as well as members of the European Union delegation.
“The worsening of gang violence in neighborhoods close to the American embassy and the airport has led the State Department to decide to withdraw” the personnel whose presence is not considered absolutely necessary, explained yesterday a representative of the American diplomacy according to APE-MPE, which citing sources from Reuters and AFP.
“Due to the very tense security situation in Haiti, the German ambassador and permanent representative in Port-au-Prince left (…) for the Dominican Republic together with representatives of the EU mission,” a representative of the German Foreign Ministry told AFP. adding that they will be working from Santo Domingo “until further notice”.
Faced with the escalation of violence, the Caribbean Community of States (CARICOM) convened an emergency meeting today in Jamaica, with representatives from the US, France, Canada and the UN participating.
The de facto prime minister is excluded
Haiti, which has neither a president nor a parliament, has been holding elections since 2016. Ariel Henri, who was named prime minister by President Jovenel Moise days before he was assassinated in 2021, was expected to step down in early February. .
Haiti’s de facto prime minister signed an agreement in Nairobi earlier this month to deploy Kenyan police officers and has since been trying to return to his country. According to the latest information, he remains stranded in Puerto Rico.
The head of American diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, and Kenyan President William Ruto discussed the crisis and underlined their “commitment” to the deployment of the force, which will allow “the creation of the necessary security conditions for the conduct of free and fair elections”, according to the State Department.
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