PORT PRINCE: As the violence in Haiti’s capital worsens, the US said on Sunday that it had flown US employees from its embassy in Port-au-Prince and added more staff to strengthen security at the property.
Following the most recent wave of upheaval, residents of troubled neighborhoods were frantically seeking shelter on Saturday. A United Nations organization issued a dire warning of a “city under siege” as armed terrorists struck the presidential palace and police headquarters.
In an attempt to remove Prime Minister Ariel Henry from office, the factions that already possess a large portion of Port-au-Prince and the highways connecting it to the rest of the nation have wreaked havoc in recent days. Instead of leaving office in February as scheduled, Prime Minister Henry decided to share power with the opposition until fresh elections could be held.
Washington has requested that Henry implement immediate political change. He was apparently left stuck in US territory of Puerto Rico after the violence broke out while he was in Kenya.
The International Organization for Migration said that 362,000 Haitians had been internally displaced as a result of the turmoil, with over half of them being children.
Prior to daybreak operations
The US military declared early on Sunday that it had “conducted an operation to enable non-essential personnel to depart, allow our embassy mission operations to continue, and augment the security of the US embassy at Port-au-Prince.” In line with routine procedure for embassy security reinforcement, the military’s southern command declared, “This airlift of personnel into and out of the embassy is consistent.”
According to X, the embassy “remains open.” “The State Department decided to arrange for the departure of additional embassy personnel due to increased gang violence in the neighborhood near US embassy compounds and near the airport,” the statement continued.
Amidst the highly dangerous security situation in Haiti, the German foreign ministry said that its ambassador, along with other representatives of the European Union, departed for the Dominican Republic on Sunday.
Envoys from the US, France, Canada, and the UN have been called to a meeting by CARICOM, an alliance of Caribbean countries, on Monday in Jamaica to talk about the violence and possible methods to help Haiti.
