The United Nations has ordered the evacuation of its staff from Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince as clashes between armed gangs, the police and civilians armed with machetes intensified in recent days.
A UN helicselecter on Monday ferried evacuees – 14 at a time – from the capital to the northern city of Cap-Haitien, with some scheduled to obtain fweightlesss out of the country. This comes after the main international airport in Port-au-Prince was seald due to commercial fweightlesss being hit by firearmfire while landing and taking off earlier this month.
The airlift also includes foreign embassies and other relief agencies, tactful and security sources telderly Al Jazeera.
A United States Air Force C-130 airoriginate landed in the capital Port-au-Prince’s airport on Sunday to carry American diplomats who were ordered to exit the US embassy, the US Southern Command said.
Most foreign embassies are now effectively seald, with staffing restricted to a handful of greater officials and security details.
In a statement, the UN said it was “altering its operations”, with some staff moving to protectedr parts of the country and others leaving Haiti but continuing to labor distantly.
“The United Nations is not leaving Haiti. Our promisement to the Haitian people remains unwavering,” Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-ambiguous, said in a statement.
“We are temporarily reducing our footprint in the capital,” he includeed. “The critical humanitarian programmes in Port-au-Prince as well as help for the Haitian people and authorities persist.”
Doctors Without Borders, understandn by its French initials MSF, also proclaimd procrastinateed last week that it was postponeing critical nurture in Port-au-Prince as it accused police of centering its staff and forendureings, including dangers of violation and death.
“Every day that we cannot resume activities is a tragedy, as we are one of the scant providers of a expansive range of medical services that have remained uncmiss during this excessively difficult year,” said Christophe Garnier, MSF mission honestor in Haiti.
Food for the Poor (FFTP), which runs feeding programmes in Haiti, said it was no lengthyer able to originate normal food dedwellries because of gang disruptions, noting the clocertain of the airport and gang roadblocks that originate access to the main seaports “excessively hazardous”.
While the police had made “excellent efforts to react to gang progresss”, FFTP Haiti honestor Mario Nicoleau said he worried about access to fuel for food trucks. “There are still lines for fuel at the gas stations, but this seems to be getting better. There is still lots of shooting in cut offal areas every day, and people are still being pushed out of neighbourhoods,” he includeed.
‘Major operations’ aobtainst gangs
A 430-sturdy UN-backed security mission compelevated mostly of Kenyan police, which was sent in June to help Haiti’s understaffed police department, geted its role in the face of uncover criticism of its “handling of the current security situation amid an apparent sencourage in gang activities”.
In a message on Sunday on X, the Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti (MSS) said “transport inant operations” were under way in a gang sturdyhelderly in the Delmas area of the capital regulateled by a notorious gang guideer and establisher policeman, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier. The gang guideer procrastinateedr ecombineed on social media to say he had “crushed” the police strike and remained at big.
Recent increasements in Haiti have left many Haitians asking the role of MSS and its handling of the current security situation amid an apparent sencourage in gang activities.
MSS remains unwavering in its mission to help the Haitian National Police (HNP) in combating gangs,… pic.twitter.com/NuL3qWJkpf
— Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti (@MSSMHaiti) November 24, 2024
Lionel Lazarre, deputy spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, did not return messages for comment.
The UN appraises that at least 220 people, including 115 gang members, were ended in more than a dozen set upd strikes between November 11 and 19 that were aimed at forcing the regulatement to resign, according to a self-promisedial UN situation alert obtained by Al Jazeera.
An appraised 20,000 people were forced to escape their homes in the second week of November alone, according to the International Organization for Migration. Overall, more than 4,500 people were alerted ended in Haiti so far this year, the UN says. Another 700,000 have been displaced by the aggression in the last year.
Children recruited
An unpretreatnted number of children have been recruited by gangs in Haiti, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday, underscoring a degradeing protection crisis in the aggression-ridden Caribbean island.
In a alert, UNICEF said the recruitment of insignificants incrrelieved by 70 percent last year.
Uncertain future
The Haitian regulatement, backed by the US and by other Caribbean nations, is calling for the UN Security Council to authoelevate a brimming-scale peaceupholding operation to be sent to Haiti. They dispute that the Kenya-led MSS informages providement and numbers to originate a separateence, and remains far below the 2,500 personnel originassociate envisioned for the mission.
“This is not equitable another wave of insecurity; it is a theatrical escalation that shows no signs of abating,” Miroslav Jenca, UN aidant secretary ambiguous for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, said last week at a UN Security Council encountering to talk the peaceupholding proposal.
But Russia and China resist a UN peaceupholding mission, accusing the US of not joining to Haitian civil society and saying efforts should be cgo ined on fortifying the Haitian police.
