In Haiti, the capital, Port-au-Prince, continued to be mired in gang-related violence on Sunday, March 10; The United States announced that it had furloughed part of its embassy staff and strengthened the teams responsible for its security. “Increased gang violence around U.S. embassies and airports has led the State Department to make arrangements to let other staff go”clarified The embassy is open.
According to residents of the neighborhood, the operation, led by the American military, was carried out by helicopters at night from Saturday to Sunday. “This airlift of personnel to and from the embassy is part of our planned procedures to strengthen embassy security.”, the US military said in a statement on Sunday. The United States Embassy in Port-au-Prince remains open, she said.
Haiti’s capital is the scene of clashes between police and armed gangs “City Under Siege”Philippe Branchet, head of Haiti at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), warned on Saturday. “Dwellers of the capital are locked out, they have nowhere to go”It describes.
According to IOM, 362,000 people have been displaced in Haiti
Criminal gangs, which control most of the capital as well as roads leading to the rest of the region, have been attacking police stations, prisons and courts for days in the absence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whom they want to resign, as have sections of the population. According to the latest news, he is stranded in the American territory of Puerto Rico after a trip abroad.
According to a correspondent of Agence France-Presse (AFP), faced with violence, dozens of residents occupied the site of public administration in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, hoping to find shelter there. “We haven’t been able to sleep since last night. We are running away, with my personal belongings on my head, without knowing where to go.”told AFP a resident who had to leave his home. “Today, it is not our neighbors in the Dominican Republic who are fighting Haiti, but Haitians, of the same blood, who are fighting among themselves”she lamented.
On Friday evening, armed men attacked the national presidential palace and a police station in Port-au-Prince, the general coordinator of the National Union of Haitian Police Officers (Sinapoha) confirmed to AFP. According to the same source, several attackers were killed. “Insecurity is on the rise at the national level: there is violence in Artibonite (North West Region of the Capital)Blockade in Cap-Haitin (North Division)and fuel shortages in the south (from Haiti) »notes Philippe Branchet.
According to the IOM, 362,000 people – more than half of them children – are currently displaced in Haiti, a figure that has increased by 15% since the beginning of the year. The Haitian government has declared a state of emergency in the western department that includes Port-au-Prince, as well as a nighttime curfew, which is difficult to enforce by already overwhelmed law enforcement agencies.
