US airlifts embassy staff out of Haiti as violence escalates

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The US has airlifted staff from its embassy out of Haiti as violence engulfs the Caribbean country and gangs attack government buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“Heightened gang violence in the neighbourhood near US embassy compounds and near the airport led to the state department’s decision to arrange for the departure of additional embassy personnel,” said the US embassy on Sunday.

“Non-essential” staff had left, it said without giving numbers, but the embassy remained open. Several countries, including France and Spain, have reduced their embassy staff or suspended operations over the past two years.

The country is mired in a fresh cycle of violence after rival gangs joined forces this month to launch a wave of attacks on the government. The interior ministry was set ablaze on Friday night amid intense fighting in downtown Port-au-Prince, while police stations were also attacked.

Gangs are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who assumed power with US support following the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 but has not held an election; the mandates of all officials in Haiti have since expired.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken will attend an emergency meeting in Jamaica on Monday with leaders from Caricom, the Caribbean Community trade bloc, to discuss Haiti. The UN and Brazil were also invited, but it is not clear whether Henry, who is stranded in Puerto Rico, will attend.

“The international community must work together with Haitians towards a peaceful political transition,” said Brian Nichols, the US state department’s assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, in a post on X on Monday.

At the same time the country is enduring dire humanitarian conditions. Many schools and hospitals have been forced to close, while NGOs — often the administrators of services in Haiti — have warned that food, water and fuel are running low.

Some 15,000 people have been displaced by the recent attacks, the UN has said, while 3,800 inmates escaped from two prisons in jailbreaks this month.

Jimmy Chérizier, a feared gang leader also known as “Barbecue”, said in a street-side press conference in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday that “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”.

The US has urged Henry to “expedite a political transition” through the creation of “a broad-based, independent presidential college”, the state department said last week.

That college would be made up of politicians and Haitian civil society members to steer the country towards the deployment of an international force to keep order, and eventual elections.

The US military’s Southern Command said on Sunday that it had also sent personnel into Haiti to bolster security for the embassy. “This airlift of personnel into and out of the embassy is consistent with our standard practice for embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” a statement read.

The country is in effect locked down, with the airport and seaport in Port-au-Prince suspending operations amid the latest violence. Its island neighbour the Dominican Republic has closed its 390km land border to people crossing.

Henry left Haiti last month to attend a summit with Caricom leaders in Guyana. Dominican President Luis Abinader has rebuffed Henry’s efforts to return via the Dominican Republic.

Henry was last seen in public on March 1 in Nairobi, where he was seeking to hasten the deployment of a long-stalled international security force to bolster Haiti’s overrun police. Kenya has pledged to lead the UN-authorised mission with 1,000 police officers, while African and Caribbean nations including Benin, Chad and Jamaica have also said they will send personnel.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who won re-election earlier this year after spearheading a draconian crackdown on gangs, claimed he could fix Haiti’s problems if given the chance.

“We can fix it,” Bukele wrote on X on Sunday. “But we’ll need a UN Security Council resolution, the consent of the host country, and all the mission expenses to be covered.”