Haiti is paralyzed by a state of emergency: there is concern from the US and the UN

A state of emergency and curfew imposed in Haiti, after the escape of thousands of inmates in a gang attackparalyzed the capital Port-au-Prince this Monday, March 4, 2024, and increased the concern of the United States and the UN over a crisis that is only degenerating.

With schools and banks closed, few people ventured out to the streets to buy water, food or essential items such as fuel, AFP journalists noted.
The state of emergency was decreed by the Government on Sunday night in the Ouest department, which covers Port-au-Prince, where a curfew was imposed between 6:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. local until Wednesday, March 6.

The measure was taken after a massive escape at the National Penitentiary, the country’s main prison, occurred after a gang attack that left at least a dozen dead in the midst of a new wave of violence.

“Rapid deterioration”

The gangs, which control much of Port-au-Prince, also attacked the international airport and police buildings.

“We are monitoring with great concern the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Haiti“U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Earlier, UN Secretary General António Guterres declared himself “very concerned” about Haiti and reiterated his call for “urgent action, especially to provide financial support to the multinational security mission” backed by the United Nations, according to his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric.

Along the same lines, the Organization of American States (OAS) described “irresponsible that the necessary measures and actions continue to be delayed“in the poorest country in the hemisphere.

The Dominican Republic reported, for its part, that it reinforced the military presence on the border, which had already increased in recent months due to the crisis. The Ministry of Defense also indicated that it reviewed the fence it has been building with its neighboring country.

Colombians safe

The powerful gang leader Jimmy Cherisier, nicknamed “Barbecue“He said in a video posted on social networks that the armed groups act together “to make the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, resign.”

Henry has governed the Caribbean country since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, and in recent months he has been the target of a lot of pressure to call presidential elections.

At the time of the decree, which was signed by the Secretary of Economy, the president was in Kenya for an agreement to send police from that African nation as part of the mission supported by the UN to restore order.

It has not yet been reported whether he returned to the country.

The 17 former Colombian soldiers detained for the murder of Moïse, who were in the raided prison, decided not to flee after death threats from a criminal gang, said their lawyer Sondra Macollins.

“The Barbecue gang was waiting to execute them at the prison door“, he reported to Colombia’s Blu Radio.

The former soldiers were evacuated from that prison on Sunday, after a request from the Colombian Foreign Ministry, which asked to protect “the physical integrity and safety” of the inmates. Colombian authorities and family members have reported mistreatment.

Corpses around the prison

After Moïse’s death, Haiti has been plunged into a serious political, humanitarian and security crisiswith state forces overwhelmed by gang violence that took control of entire areas of the country.

An AFP journalist who visited the prison on Sunday morning saw a dozen bodies around the prison. Some had gunshot wounds.

The door was open and almost no one was there, he noted.

“Many bodies of detainees were counted“Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), told AFP.

Only a small number of its nearly 3,800 inmates remain in the prison, Espérance said.

According to the Haitian Government, police officers tried on Saturday night to “repel an assault by criminal gangs on the National Penitentiary and the Croix des Bouquets prison”, with several injured.