The US has airlifted its embassy staff out of the country as violence continues in the country with armed gangs attacking government buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“Heightened gang violence in the neighbourhood near US embassy compounds and near the airport led to the state department’s decision to arrange for the departure of additional embassy personnel,” said the US embassy said on Sunday.
The US government has said that it has also sent personnel into Haiti to bolster security for the embassy.
The embassy would remain open with non-essential staff having been left behind. The US decision comes as some of the major western countries like France and Spain, have already reduced staff or shut down the embassy.
The country is in the midst of a fresh cycle of violence after rival gangs joined forces and have since launched attacks on prisons, police stations.
The gangs have demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who came to power with US backing following assassination of president Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
The United Nations estimates that over 15,000 people have been displaced by the recent attacks with 3,800 inmates escaping from the two prisons.
Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer and a gang leader has threatened the possibility of a civil war if the current PM did not step down from his post.
Meanwhile, the United State has urged expediting a political transition by creating a presidential college, which would include politicians and Haitian civil society members to steer the country towards the deployment of an international force to keep order, and eventual elections.
According to reports, Henry is currently hiding in Puerto Rico, having left Haiti last month to attend a summit with leaders of the Caribbean Community trade bloc in Guyana. He was last seen in Nairobi on March 1. Caricom, an intergovernmental organisation that is a political and economic union of 15 member states throughout the Americas and Atlantic Ocean has called an emergency meeting in Jamaica today and has invited the US, UN, and Brazil.
