The Haitian capital’s main port suspended operations Thursday amid a sharp escalation in gang violence that forced authorities in the poorest Caribbean nation to extend a state of emergency declared over the weekend in Port-au-Prince for a month.

The gangs, which control much of the capital and roads leading to the rest of the territory, have been attacking strategic locations since last week in the absence of de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henri, demanding, like part of the population, his resignation.

The company Caribbean Port Services, which manages the port of the capital, announced on Thursday that it was suspending its operation due to the “riots”, citing “sabotage and vandalism” from March 1.

Earlier, a decision was published in the government’s official gazette to “extend the state of emergency for security reasons” in Haiti’s western prefecture, which includes the capital, “for a period of one month” and to impose a new nighttime curfew — but a measure that closely resembles difficult to implement— until Monday.

The state of emergency and night curfew were announced on Sunday after thugs broke out in prisons, from which thousands of inmates escaped.

Among the strategic locations targeted by criminals are, in addition to the port, courts and police stations. Another police station was set on fire last Wednesday night in Port-au-Prince, the general coordinator of the national union of Haitian police officers (SYNAPOHA) told AFP, however the members of the law enforcement forces managed to leave.

According to a count by the police union, since the crisis escalated last week, ten police buildings have been destroyed and two prisons — including the country’s largest — have been attacked, with most of the inmates escaping.

Powerful gang leader Jimmy Serizier, aka “Barbecue,” threatened Tuesday that unless Prime Minister Henri steps down and the international community continues to support him, Haiti of about 11 million people will be plunged into “civil war” and ” genocide”.

The de facto prime minister, who was supposed to leave office in early February, was in Kenya when the crisis escalated and has not been able to return to Haiti, mainly because of the lack of security around the capital’s international airport.

As of yesterday morning, Mr. Henry was still in Puerto Rico, a spokesman for the US Caribbean territory’s border patrol told AFP.

At the time of the exacerbation of the multi-year crisis in Haiti, the country’s health system is on the verge of “collapse”, warns the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the UN.

The National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains en Haiti, RNDDH) for its part denounced the inaction of the state’s services – “the government authorities have resigned”, he emphasized in his report made public yesterday Wednesday – and that “the streets (…) have been given over to the gangs (…) and the Haitian population has been abandoned to its fate” as the police avoid even walking the streets. The organization called for measures to “regain control of the territory”.

To do this, the Security Council in October gave the green light to the mission of a multinational force led by Kenya, which has offered to deploy 1,000 police. But its development is delayed, due to a decision of the Kenyan justice as well as due to a glaring lack of funding. It is not yet clear when it will be deployed.