Armed gangs plunge Haiti into chaos. They want to force Prime Minister Henry to resign. He couldn’t enter the country after a trip abroad: the airport was closed because of the violence.
The escalation of gang violence in Haiti has apparently delayed the return of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Due to the violence, it was not possible to fly to the airport in the capital Port-au-Prince. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, Henry was not granted permission to land, Dominican media group CDN reported. The Dominican Republic suspended all flights to Haiti on Tuesday.
Authorities in the Caribbean state of Puerto Rico confirmed on Tuesday evening that Henry’s government plane had briefly landed there. But she doesn’t know whether Henry is still in Puerto Rico, the governor’s spokeswoman told the AFP news agency. He is expected to travel on to the Dominican Republic and then fly to Haiti.
The Haitian government declared a state of emergency on Sunday evening and imposed a night-time ban on going out. The government justified its decision as an attempt to regain the upper hand on the streets after armed gangs freed almost all 4,000 detainees in an attack on the country’s largest prison on Sunday night.
Help requested from Kenya
Rival armed groups that control large parts of the country are apparently fighting together for the resignation of the head of government, who was actually supposed to leave office at the beginning of February. Last week, Henry traveled to Kenya, where he signed an agreement for the deployment of Kenyan police forces in Haiti. Kenya had agreed to lead a multinational response force approved by the UN Security Council to stabilize the situation in Haiti.
Haiti in constant crisis
The Caribbean state of Haiti has been in a serious crisis for years, which includes not only gang violence but also political instability and economic hardship. According to the UN, the number of people in the country in need of humanitarian aid has doubled in the past five years alone. The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 dramatically worsened the security situation. According to the UN, more than 1,100 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in Haiti in January alone. The country’s criminal gangs appear to be better armed than the police. There have been no elections in the Caribbean country since 2016. The post of president is vacant.