Due to the serious situation in Haiti, the United States evacuated non-essential personnel from its embassy

Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, continues to be immersed in a spiral of violence unleashed by armed gangs, so The United States announced the evacuation of some of its embassy personnel and reinforced security.

Hospitals under attack, food shortages and blocked infrastructure have led the city to an increasingly precarious humanitarian situation. Saturday was marked by new clashes between the police and criminal gangs.
US military spokesmen said on Sunday that an operation had been “conducted to increase the US Embassy securityin Port-au-Prince allow “the operations” of the diplomatic mission to continue and “the departure of non-essential personnel”

“The air transportation of personnel to and from the Embassy is consistent with our standard practice of increasing security,” added a statement from the Southern Command of the US Department of Defense.

The US embassy noted on the social network “Increased gang violence in the vicinity of the US embassy and airport has led the State Department to make arrangements to allow additional personnel to leave” of the diplomatic headquarters.

“The inhabitants of the capital live confined, they have nowhere to go,” Philippe Branchat, head of the International Organization for Migration, warned on Saturday. (IOM), describing a “city under siege.”

“People who flee cannot contact their family members or friends who are in the rest of the country in order to find refuge. The capital is surrounded by armed and dangerous gangs,” he said.

The gangs, which control vast areas of the capital, as well as the access roads that lead to the rest of the territory, have been attacking police stations, courts and prisons for several days, from which thousands of prisoners have escaped.

These groups and a part of the population demand the resignation of the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who is out of the country. According to the latest reports, Henry is in Puerto Rico.

Faced with the violence, dozens of residents took over a public administration office in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, hoping to find refuge there, according to an AFP correspondent.

“Since last night we have not been able to sleep. We fled, me with my things on my head, not knowing where to go” Filienne Setoute, who had to leave her home, told AFP.

The day before, armed men attacked the presidential palace and the Port-au-Prince police station, the general coordinator of the Haitian Police union (Synapoha) confirmed to AFP. Several attackers were killed, according to the same source.

“Insecurity is about to spread on a national scale: there is violence in Artibonite (northwest region), blockades in Cap Haitien (north), and fuel shortages in the south” Branchat highlighted.

According to the IOM, 362,000 people, more than half of whom are children, are currently displaced in Haiti, a figure that has risen 15% since the beginning of the year.

The government decreed a state of emergency in the department of Oeste which includes Port-au-Prince, as well as a night curfew difficult to apply by law enforcement agencies, who are already overwhelmed.

Fabiola Sanon, a resident of the capital, told AFP that her husband James, 32, was killed during the latest attacks and that she found him “lying in the street.”

Faced with the outbreak of violence, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) summoned representatives from the United States, France, Canada and the UN to a meeting on Monday in Jamaica.

Health care is seriously affected with “hospitals that have been attacked by gangs and who have had to evacuate health personnel and patientsincluding newborns”, according to the IOM.

The general director of the National Port Authority (APN), Jocelin Villier, denounced looting in the port.

The NGO Mercy Corps warned of the risks to the food supply in the poorest country in America. “With the closure of the international airport, the little aid Haiti currently receives may never arrive again,” the agency warned on Thursday. And “if those containers are not accessed, Haiti will soon be hungry.”

If the “paralysis” in Port-au-Prince continues in the coming weeks, “Nearly 3,000 pregnant women are at risk of not being able to access essential health care,” several UN representatives warned last week.