‘City under siege’
Brutal gangs take over Haiti
WITH Haiti’s capital spiralling deeper into gang violence, members of several diplomatic missions, including staff from the United States and the German embassies, began leaving Port-auPrince on Sunday.
Beleaguered residents were scrambling for safety following the latest spasm of unrest, with a United Nations group warning of a “city under siege” after armed attackers targeted the presidential palace and police headquarters.
Criminal groups, which already control much of Port-au-Prince as well as roads leading to the rest of the country, have unleashed havoc in recent days as they try to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry as leader of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.
The US military said early on Sunday it had “conducted an operation to augment the security of the US Embassy at Port-au-Prince, allow our Embassy mission operations to continue, and enable non-essential personnel to depart”.
An “airlift of personnel into and out of the Embassy” was also in place,
“consistent with our standard practice for Embassy security augmentation”, the statement from the military’s US Southern Command added.
The pre-dawn operation was apparently conducted by helicopter flights to and from the airport. An AFP correspondent and nearby residents heard the distinct sounds of chopper blades overhead.
A State Department spokesperson said the embassy “remains open, on limited operations” with reduced personnel.
The German foreign ministry meanwhile said its ambassador joined other European Union representatives in leaving for the Dominican Republic on Sunday.
“Due to the very tense security situation in Haiti, the German ambassador and the permanent representative in Port-au-Prince left for the Dominican Republic today together with representatives from the EU delegation,” a ministry spokesman told AFP, adding that they would work from there “until further notice”.