crime
Reports: Violence escalates in Haiti
The violence is exacerbating the precarious supply situation in Haiti. photo
© Odelyn Joseph/AP/dpa
Brutal gangs have most of Haiti’s capital under their control. Now shots are fired at the international airport. A gang leader wants the head of government not to be able to return to the country.
Shots were fired at Port-au-Prince international airport on Thursday, among other places, leading to flight cancellations, according to the newspaper Le Nouvelliste and other Haitian media. At least one aircraft is said to have been damaged.
A video has been circulating on social media in which notorious gang leader and ex-cop Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier says the violence is aimed at preventing interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning from a trip to Kenya. The police chief and cabinet members of the Caribbean state were also to be captured.
Supply situation worsened
According to UN estimates, brutal gangs control around 80 percent of Port-au-Prince and are increasingly expanding their area of influence outside the capital. The violence is exacerbating the precarious supply situation – according to the United Nations, almost half of Haiti’s eleven million residents suffer from acute hunger.
Shortly after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021, Henry took over the reins of government in Haiti. There have been no elections since then and the country has neither a president nor a parliament. Recently there were protests against the interim head of government. After a meeting of the Caribbean community of states Caricom, Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis was quoted by the Miami Herald as saying that Henry had agreed to hold elections by the end of August 2025.
The UN Security Council approved an international police operation against gang violence in October at the request of the Haitian government. Kenya wanted to take the lead. A decision by a Kenyan court in January has so far blocked the plans. On Thursday, Henry was in the East African country for talks.