US pushes Haiti PM to speed transition as gangs threaten civil war

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) - The United States said yesterday it was calling on Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to expedite a political transition as armed gangs seek his ouster amid a collapse in security and a humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean nation.

Henry, Haiti's unelected interim leader, has been in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico since Tuesday, apparently unable or unwilling to return to his strife-torn country after traveling to Kenya to rally security backing.

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. was not pushing for Henry to resign, but the U.S. wanted him to "expedite" a transition of political power.

The United States also said it is not helping Henry return home.

"We are not providing any assistance to help the prime minister return to Haiti," White House spokesperson Karine JeanPierre said. Haitian gangs have warned that if Henry does not resign and countries continue to back him, that it could lead to civil war.

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, said that as late as Tuesday the U.S. had been seeking to have Henry make an "indefinite stopover" on its territory, a request it denied, prompting Henry's plane, which had already departed from New Jersey, to land in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.

Henry had traveled abroad to secure Kenya's proposed leadership of a long-delayed U.N.-ratified security mission he first requested in 2022 to help fight the increasingly powerful gangs, but countries have been slow to volunteer support.

There is no set deployment date and questions remain on who will staff it and how it will operate. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda ThomasGreenfield, said on Wednesday that Washington hoped "that action will take place quickly."

Jimmy Cherizier, alias

Barbeque, who leads a broad alliance of criminal gangs that have been fueling a dire humanitarian crisis in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, has signaled the gangs could fight the proposed mission as a united front and that the city's international airport is no longer secure.

Local rights group RNDDH said that at least nine police stations had been torched while 21 public buildings or shops had been looted, and over 4,600 prisoners escaped in the past week.

"If Ariel Henry doesn't step down, if the international community continues to support Ariel Henry, they will lead us directly into a civil war that will end in genocide," Cherizier said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He added that a broad alliance of gangs known as Viv Ansanm (Living Together) were fighting to annex strategic areas to allow them to oust Henry "as quickly as possible," and that his international backers would be to blame for Haitians who die.

Henry, who has been in power but unelected since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, has postponed promised elections, saying security must first be established for a free and fair vote.

Leaders from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have been meeting with Haitian government officials and

Gang members Creator: Ralph Tedy Erol | Credit: REUTERS opposition figures from the Puerto Rican hotel U.N. High private, civil and religious believed to be hosting Commissioner for Human sectors "around the clock" Henry yesterday, calling Rights Volker Turk called for three days, CARICOM for his resignation and for for the "urgent deployment, Chair Irfaan Ali, who is an external body to help with no further also the president of administer elections. delay" of the planned security Guyana, said in a video "We ask that this great force, saying there was statement. murderer resign," said no realistic alternative to

Ali said they had not Leonard Prophil, 51, a protect lives: "This situation been able to reach "any Haitian who has lived in is beyond untenable form of consensus" Puerto Rico for 18 years for the people of Haiti." between key Haitian players and said his niece had been According to the U.N., and said it was essential a victim of kidnapping in some 360,000 people are to establish one as countries Haiti. "I don't know why internally displaced while prepare to deploy they allowed him in Puerto close to 1,200 have been troops in Haiti. Rico." killed and nearly 700

"They're all aware of the A U.N. spokesperson on injured since the start of price of failure," Ali said. Wednesday reiterated calls this year, with widespread "The fact that more people for donations to the security reports of rape and torture, have died in Haiti in the force and aid campaigns, early part of this year than saying the main hospitals in Ukraine must give were overloaded with everyone serious pause." wounded civilians and

A small number of protesters there was an urgent need were outside a for supplies of blood. and access to basic supplies and services blocked.

"Each passing day brings new deprivations and horrors," the head of the U.N.'s children agency, Catherine Russell, said. "The Haitian population is caught in the crossfire."

An association of private hospitals in Haiti on Wednesday said that due to the conflict many hospitals had been victims of violent attacks and were facing severe shortages of medical essentials such as fuel and oxygen.

The Dominican Republic has upped security on its border with Haiti. Last year it deported tens of thousands of Haitian migrants and has said it will not allow Haitian refugee camps in its territory. Responding to questions on refusing Henry's plane, Dominican authorities said while they planned to cooperate to help restore normalcy to Haiti, "it is imperative that any action taken does not compromise our national security."

Haitian news outlet Vant Bef reported that Guy Philippe, a former coup leader who was recently deported from the United States after serving a prison term on drug trafficking charges, was seeking to become leader.