Overwhelmed by a serious political, security and humanitarian crisis, and by gang pressure, Haiti, and in particular Port-au-Prince, experienced a second day of tensions on Friday March 1.
Gangs, united under the label “Living Together”, have been carrying out coordinated attacks in the capital since Thursday, targeting strategic sites such as the civil prison, the international airport, and police buildings. At least four police officers have been killed and dozens of people have been injured since these tensions began.
On Thursday, a powerful gang leader said he was acting to “get Prime Minister Ariel Henry out of office.” The latter is not in Port-au-Prince: he signed an agreement on Friday in Nairobi to send Kenyan police officers to the island, as part of an international mission supported by the United Nations aimed at fighting against the violence of criminal gangs which is plaguing the country.
On site, around ten police officers protested in front of their general management premises, demanding that everything possible be done to recover the bodies of their four colleagues killed on Thursday. Streets in Port-au-Prince were blocked Friday by barricades of burning tires.
Humanitarian activities in danger
In hospitals, counting of the injured begins. A source from the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, one of the largest public hospitals in the capital, said that no fewer than 25 injured people had been received Thursday.
In the two Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) centers, located in the Tabarre and Cité Soleil districts, if the admission figures are stable at at least fifteen per day, “the injured come from everywhere now. There is no longer a quiet zone,” Mumuza Muhindo, the NGO’s head of mission, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “It is becoming complicated for our staff to travel to our centers,” he added.
Humanitarians are also concerned about the supply of medicines. “We have containers stuck at customs. We couldn’t get them out [Thursday] because of the unrest. If the situation remains as it is, it will be complicated to continue to maintain our activities,” he warned.
At Toussaint-Louverture international airport, despite the shooting nearby, flights to the United States and the Dominican Republic resumed on Friday, a source close to the airlines told AFP. Faced with “heavy gunfire” and “traffic disruptions” near the airport, the American embassy announced on its website that it would interrupt transfers between its facilities and the airport.