The gangs say they want to overthrow Ariel Henry, who has been in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and was due to leave office in early February.
Armed gangs attacked the police academy on Tuesday in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital that is under curfew. There, armed gangs released thousands of prisoners and tried to occupy the airport. The gangs, which control entire parts of the country, including the capital, have been attacking strategic locations for several days while controversial Prime Minister Ariel Henry is abroad.
The attack on the police academy in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood plagued by armed gangs, where more than 800 people are trained, was repelled by reinforcements of police officers, said Lionel Lazarre, coordinator of the National Union of Haitian Police Officers (Synapoha ). The gangs say they want to overthrow Ariel Henry, who has been in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and was due to leave office in early February.
According to an AFP journalist, the police and army had already repelled an attack on Toussaint-Louverture international airport the day before. Unrest around the airport has led to international airlines canceling all flights to Port-au-Prince.
15,000 people had to leave their homes
According to the same source, several armed people stormed a police station near the airport and set it on fire. The civil aviation authority of the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, said it had suspended all flights with its neighbor “with immediate effect.”
The latest violence follows attacks carried out against two prisons in Port-au-Prince over the weekend, leading to the escape of thousands of inmates and around 10 deaths. In response, the government declared a state of emergency and a three-day night curfew, which may be extended through Wednesday.
This new “escalation” of violence has forced about 15,000 people to leave their homes in Port-au-Prince, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in New York on Tuesday, adding that humanitarian workers had begun working in three new locations to distribute food and other basic needs to internally displaced people. The UN Security Council will meet behind closed doors on the issue on Wednesday, according to its program. Maria Isabel Salvador, United Nations representative in Haiti, will provide you with a remote update on the situation. According to AFP journalists, after being brought to a standstill, the capital still appeared to resume some semblance of activity on Tuesday, although certain streets remained barricaded with stones and logs placed by residents to protect them.
Lack of security for the Prime Minister's return
Transport is working again and shops are open again. Long queues form in front of shops, banks and petrol stations. The US State Department said the prime minister was on his way home on Monday but was expected back home on Tuesday. According to local media Radio Télé Métronome, Ariel Henry was unable to return due to a lack of security at the airport.
The head of government traveled to Nairobi last week to sign an agreement to send Kenyan police to Haiti as part of an international mission supported by the United Nations and the United States. Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is in a deep political, humanitarian and security crisis, exacerbated by the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, and the political process is at a complete impasse.
According to the UN, more than 8,400 people were victims of gang violence last year, killed, injured and kidnapped, “an increase of 122% compared to 2022”. “With every day that passes, if not with every hour, it becomes clear that it is the Haitian people who are suffering from the terrible and inhumane violence for survival,” commented Stéphane Dujarric, echoing the UN Secretary-General’s call all political actors who drive the political process forward to enable the holding of elections.