Gangs have intensified their rampage in the downtown area of Haiti’s capital, setting fire to a school and looting pharmacies across the road from the country’s largest public hospital.

The attacks that began Monday and continued into early Tuesday mark nearly a month since gunmen began targeting key infrastructure across Port-au-Prince including police stations, the main international airport that remains closed and Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

“The violence and instability in Haiti have consequences far beyond the risk of the violence itself,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, said in a statement Tuesday. “The situation is creating a child health and nutrition crisis that could cost the lives of countless of children.” The number of children in Haiti estimated to suffer from severe acute malnutrition has increased by 19% this year, according to UNICEF. In addition, some 1.64 million people are on the precipice of famine. “This malnutrition crisis is entirely human made,” Russell said.

Violence has forced the closure of roads and certain hospitals and prevented aid groups from delivering critical supplies at a time they are needed the most.

Only two of five hospitals in Haiti are operational across the country, according to UNICEF. In addition, the violence in Port-au-Prince has prevented the distribution of health and nutrition supplies for at least 58,000 children who are severely wasted, the agency said.

Scores of people have been killed in the ongoing attacks, and some 17,000 have been left homeless as Haiti’s National Police continues to be overwhelmed by heavily armed gangs that control 80 per cent of the capital.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden approved up to USD 10 million in emergency assistance for Haitian security forces to “protect civilians and critical infrastructure against organised and targeted gang attacks”, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Jean-Pierre said the funding comes from the US Department of Homeland Security budget and can be used for materials including weapons, ammunition, bullet-proof vests and helmets.

Meanwhile, members of a regional trade bloc known as Caricom have pushed to accelerate the formation of a transitional presidential council in hopes it could soon help quell the ongoing violence.

Haiti’s criminal gangs have long opposed the current Prime Minister Ariel Henry, blaming him for deepening poverty, but critics of gangs accuse them of trying to seize power for themselves or for unidentified Haitian politicians.

The transition council would be responsible for choosing a new prime minister and a council of ministers. Henry, who was locked out of Haiti when the attacks began, has said he would resign once the council is created.

However, multiple setbacks continue to delay formation of the council, which will be composed of nine members, seven of them with voting powers.

On Monday, Rene Jean Jumeau, who was nominated to represent Haiti’s religious sector in a non-voting position, resigned.

“The need for concrete action is too strong to remain helpless in the posture of spectator,” he said in a letter addressed to the council.

Meanwhile, Col. Himmler Rebu, a former colonel of Haiti’s army and president of the Grand Rally for the Revolution of Haiti, a party that obtained a seat on the council, told Radio RFM 104.9 on Tuesday that he believes the council will fail.

Rébu said officials should just move quickly to Plan B, which he said should involve granting powers to a judge from Haiti’s Supreme Court to select the country’s new leaders.

Supporters of that plan include the Protestant Federation of Haiti. It issued a statement on Monday backing the selection of a Supreme Court judge who would serve as interim president and help choose a prime minister.

Caribbean officials said no additional meetings with nominated council members are planned for the week since they have asked for more time to work through various unidentified internal issues.

People walk past the body of a man who, along with others, was shot dead earlier in the morning, amid an escalation in gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Gangs attacked two upscale neighbourhoods in Haiti’s capital early Monday, March 18, 2024, in a rampage that left at least a dozen people dead in surrounding areas.

Gunmen looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police.

The neighbourhoods had remained largely peaceful despite a surge in violent gang attacks across Port-au-Prince that began on February 29.

An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of at least 12 men strewn on the streets of Pétionville.

“Abuse! This is abuse!” cried out one Haitian man who did not want to be identified as he raised his arms and stood near one of the victims.

The most recent attacks raised concerns that gang violence would not cease despite Prime Minister Ariel Henry announcing nearly a week ago that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created, a move that gangs had been demanding.

Also read: Haitians have little hope in interim government amid spiralling violence

Gangs have long opposed the Prime Minister Henry, saying he was never elected by the people as they blame him for deepening poverty, but critics of gangs accuse them of trying to seize power for themselves or for unidentified Haitian politicians.

Also on Monday, Haiti’s power company announced that four substations in the capital and elsewhere “were destroyed and rendered completely dysfunctional”. As a result, swaths of Port-au-Prince were without power.

In a bid to curb the relentless violence, Haiti’s government announced Sunday that it was extending a nighttime curfew through March 20.

Members of the General Security Unit of the National Palace, USGPN, set up a security perimeter around one of the three downtown stations after police fought off an attack by gangs the day before, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on March 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Residents of Haiti’s capital scrambled for safety on March 9 following the latest spasm of gang violence, with a U.N. group warning of a “city under siege” after armed attackers targeted the presidential palace and police headquarters.

Criminal groups, which already control much of Port-au-Prince as well as roads leading to the rest of the country, have unleashed havoc in recent days as they try to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry as leader of the Western hemisphere’s poorest country.

On Saturday, dozens of residents were seeking safety in public buildings, with some successfully breaking into one facility, according to an AFP correspondent.

The unrest has seen 362,000 Haitians internally displaced — more than half of them children and some forced to move multiple times, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Saturday.

Also Read | Foreigners trapped in violence-torn Haiti wait desperately for a way out

“Haitians are unable to lead a decent life. They are living in fear, and every day, every hour this situation carries on, the trauma gets worse,” Philippe Branchat, IOM’s chief in Haiti, said in a statement.

“People living in the capital are locked in, they have nowhere to go,” he said. “The capital is surrounded by armed groups and danger. It is a city under siege.”

Police on Friday night repelled gang attacks, including on the presidential palace, and several “bandits” were killed, Lionel Lazarre of the Haitian police union said. No police were among the victims.

The violence left burned-out vehicles, still smouldering, outside the Interior Ministry and on nearby streets, an AFP correspondent said.

Gunshots rang out late Friday throughout Port-au-Prince and witnesses recounted clashes “between police officers and bandits” as gangs apparently tried to commandeer police stations in the city center.

Mr. Lazarre on Saturday pleaded for “means and equipment” to protect police buildings and other key facilities.

State of emergency

The well-armed gangs have attacked key infrastructure in recent days, including two prisons, allowing the majority of their 3,800 inmates to escape.

Along with some ordinary Haitians, the gangs are seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Henry, who was due to leave office in February but instead agreed to a power-sharing deal with the opposition until new elections are held.

The United States has asked Henry to enact urgent political reform to prevent further escalation. But he was in Kenya when the violence broke out and is now reportedly stranded in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

After months of delays, the U.N. Security Council finally gave its green light in October for a multinational policing mission led by Kenya, but that deployment has been stalled by Kenyan courts.

Port-au-Prince and western Haiti have been placed under a month-long state of emergency and a nighttime curfew was in effect until Monday, though it was unlikely overstretched police could enforce it.

‘Running away’

In Port-au-Prince, Filienne Setoute told AFP how she had worked for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor for more than 20 years.

That job, she said, meant she “was able to build my own house. But now here I am, homeless. I’m fleeing without knowing where to go, it’s an abuse.”

“We haven’t been able to sleep since last night,” she added. “We’re running away.”

Haiti’s airport remained closed while the main port — a key point for food imports — reported looting since suspending services on Thursday, despite efforts to set up a security perimeter.

“If we cannot access those containers (full of food), Haiti will go hungry soon,” the NGO Mercy Corps warned in a statement.

CARICOM, an alliance of Caribbean nations, has summoned envoys from the United States, France, Canada and the United Nations to a meeting Monday in Jamaica to discuss the violence.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali said the meeting would take up “critical issues for the stabilization of security and the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance.”

The violence is threatening the country’s most vulnerable, including pregnant women and survivors of sexual violence, as the health system collapses.

Branchat, of IOM, deplored gang attacks on hospitals and “dire” lack of mental health services.

“Some hospitals have been run over by gangs and had to evacuate staff and patients, including newborns,” he said.

“Medical professionals across the capital are sounding the alarm as their capacity to deliver even the most basic medical services is severely diminished.”

Dozens of foreigners, including many from the United States and Canada, are stranded in Haiti, desperately trying to leave the violence-torn country where anti-government gangs are battling police and have already shut down both of the country’s international airports.

They were in Haiti for reasons ranging from adoptions to missionary and humanitarian work. Now, they are locked down in hotels and homes, unable to leave by air, sea or land as Haiti remains paralyzed by the mayhem and the gangs’ demands that Prime Minister Ariel Henry resign.

Also Read |UN Security Council raises alarm on ‘critical’ situation in violence-gripped Haiti

“We are seriously trapped,” said Richard Phillips, a 65-year-old from the Canadian capital, Ottawa, who has traveled to Haiti more than three dozen times to work on projects for the United Nations, USAID and now, a Haitian nonprofit called Papyrus.

After arriving in Haiti in late February, Mr. Phillips flew to the southern coastal city of Les Cayes to teach farmers and others how to operate and repair tractors, cultivators, planters and other machinery in an area known for its corn, rice, peas and beans.

Once his work was done, Mr. Phillips flew to the capital, Port-au-Prince, only to find that his flight had been canceled. He stayed at a nearby hotel, but the gunfire was relentless, so moved on to a safer area.

“We are actually quite concerned about where this is going,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “If the police force collapses, there’s going to be anarchy in the streets, and we might be here a month or more.”

Scores of people have been killed in the gang attacks that began Feb. 29, and more than 15,000 people have been left homeless by the violence.

Earlier this week, Haiti’s government extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew to try and quell the violence, but the attacks continue.

Gangs have burned police stations, released more than 4,000 inmates from Haiti’s two biggest prisons and attacked Port-au-Prince’s main airport, which remains closed. As a result, the prime minister has been unable to return home after a trip to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country.

Mr. Phillips said he has exhausted all options to leave Haiti by air, noting that a helicopter operator couldn’t get insured for such a flight and a private plane pilot said that approach would be too risky. As for trying to trek to the neighboring Dominican Republic: “It’s possible we could walk miles and miles to get to a border, but I’m sure that’s dangerous as well.”

Despite being stuck, Mr. Phillips said he remains calm.

“I’ve been shot at many times in Haiti and have bullet holes in my truck,” he said. “Personally, I’m kind of used to it. But I’m sure other people, it’s quite traumatic for them.”

Yvonne Trimble, who has lived in Haiti for more than 40 years, is among the U.S. expats who can’t leave.

She and her husband are in the northern coastal city of Cap-Haitien, waiting for a private evacuation flight for missionaries that had already been canceled once.

“We’re completely locked down,” she said by phone. “This is the worst I’ve seen it. It’s total anarchy.”

Trimble noted how a mob surrounded the airport in Cap-Haitien recently and began throwing rocks and bottles following a rumor that the prime minister was going to land.

She and her husband are scheduled to fly out next week courtesy of Florida-based Missionary Flights International.

The company’s vice president of administration, Roger Sands, said Missionary Flights International has received up to 40 calls from people hoping to leave or remain on standby.

“We’re getting phone calls constantly,” he said. “The big concern is that every time people see an airplane, they think the prime minister is coming back to the country, and there’s a large segment of the society that doesn’t want that to happen. So we don’t want to be the first ones in.”

It’s not clear when Haiti’s two international airports will reopen.

“This is difficult for us,” Mr. Sands said. “We hate seeing our planes on the ground when there’s need.”

A missionary couple who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of their safety said they have been living in Haiti for several years but won’t leave because they’re in the middle of adopting a 6-year-old boy.

“There is no choice to be made. We’re here as family,” the woman said.

Meanwhile, her husband was supposed to fly to the U.S. last week for medical care since he has Type 1 diabetes and has developed a neuropathy that causes severe pain in his legs and back, and muscle-wasting in his legs, making it difficult to move.

For now, the four appointments he made are on hold.

“It’s a little frustrating,” he said.

Also unable to leave are Matt Prichard, a 35-year-old from Lebanon, Ohio, and his family. Prichard, COO of a missionary, has two children — an infant and toddler — with his Haitian wife, as well as an 18-year-old son.

The rest of his family hasn’t been able to get documents to enter the U.S. yet, so they will all stay in southern Haiti for now.

“We unfortunately seem to be stuck,” he said.

Mr. Prichard noted that his son is stressed out by the situation, telling him he should leave because ‘this isn’t a good place for you. Just get out of here.’

But Mr. Prichard said, “As a father, you can’t leave your kids or your family.”

He said the local grocery store has nearly run out of basic goods and gas has been hard to find.

“The expat community here is really our solace,” he said. “It’s that connection, those relationships, that really are getting us through.”