Embattled Haiti prime minister unable to return home
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Haiti prime minister unable to return home after visit to Kenya amid increasing gang violence in the country
Haiti prime minister unable to return home after visit to Kenya amid increasing gang violence in the country.
Haiti is moveing closer to total collapse and its prime minister is unable to return home
According to reports, banks and government offices in Haiti are being pillaged and burned.
Police substations are also falling under the control of gangs with prisons being broken into.
As a powerful coalition of armed gangs continues its assault in a volatile Haiti— and the political party of a former coup leader proposes he lead a takeover of the country — fears are mounting that Haiti has mere days, or maybe even hours, before it completely collapses.
The country’s embattled prime minister, Ariel Henry, who had been on a state visit to Kenya, has been unable to return home.
He attempted unsuccessfully to return via the neighboring Dominican Republic on Tuesday after international commercial flights to Haiti remained suspended for a second straight day.
But Henry’s charter plane was denied entry into the Dominican Republic and he was forced to land in Puerto Rico, an official in the U.S. territory confirmed to the Miami Herald.
The Dominican Foreign Ministry did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.
Kenyan President William Ruto, who last week declared he is ready to deploy 1,000 of his police officers to help Haiti after signing a bilateral agreement with Henry, has told U.S. and Haitian officials he can have his troops ready to go within 72 hours.
“The way the situation is now, Haiti cannot wait any longer,” said Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist in Port-au-Prince. “The gangs are in many places and starting to pillage. If there isn’t a rapid response to support the police, the situation can become even worse at any moment.”
The White House is relying on it, ruling out a deployment of U.S. forces and pledging to “expedite” the multinational support mission, led by Kenya, that has taken over 16 months to materialize.
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But Republicans in Congress are still objecting to the disbursement of millions of dollars the Biden administration pledged to help support the mission.
The U.S. funding is needed to pay for the mission’s planning and deployment.
On Monday, gangs surrounded the international and domestic airports in the capital, firing at police while trying to breach a security wall.
In addition to trying to take control of the facility, they were also awaiting Henry, whom they had promised to keep out of the country.
While police, along with soldiers from the army pushed back the attack, another police substation in the Delmas 28 neighborhood fell.
The attacks have demoralized an already weak police force, said Esperance, noting that rank-and-file officers have abandoned some posts and are no longer taking orders from superiors.
Police are absent in areas not under attack by gangs, he said. U.S. officials acknowledged to McClatchy and the Herald that the mission’s lack of funding is a critical obstacle, noting that other countries had also faced hurdles submitting their financial pledges in time.
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