As in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince gang violence continues to ragethe US announced yesterday on Sunday that it has hurriedly removed some of its embassy staff, followed by Germany, which has hastily removed its ambassador as well as members of the European Union delegation.

Washington said it had removed some of the embassy’s diplomats and strengthened the teams charged with its security. “The worsening of gang violence in neighborhoods close to the American embassy and the airport has led the State Department to decide to withdraw” the staff whose presence is not considered absolutely necessary, explained yesterday a representative of the American diplomacy.

Germany announced that it had taken a similar measure. “Due to the very tense security situation in Haiti, the German ambassador and permanent representative in Port-au-Prince left (…) for the Dominican Republic together with representatives of the EU mission,” a foreign ministry representative told AFP. , adding that they will be working from Santo Domingo “until further notice”.

Port-au-Prince has become a theater of conflict between police and heavily armed gangs, who are attacking strategic locations, including the presidential palace, police stations and prisons.

The escalation of the crisis is recorded in the absence of Prime Minister Ariel Henri, who the gangs demand to resign, as well as a portion of the population.

The city is “in a state of siege”, Philippe Brancha of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Saturday.

“We lost everything we had. We lost our families,” said Reginald Bristol, a resident of the Haitian capital.

The authorities declared a state of emergency a week ago in the western prefecture of the country, which includes the capital, and announced a night traffic ban, which they would hardly be able to implement.

Faced with the escalation of violence, the Caribbean Community of States (CARICOM) convened an emergency meeting today in Jamaica, with representatives from the US, France, Canada and the UN participating.

International reaction

The Security Council last October approved the deployment of a Kenyan-led multinational force to assist Haitian police, but the mission has been delayed.

Haiti’s de facto prime minister signed an agreement in Nairobi earlier this month to deploy Kenyan police officers and has since been trying to return to his country. According to the latest information, he remains stranded in Puerto Rico, an American territory in the Caribbean.

The head of US diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, and Kenyan President William Ruto spoke about the crisis and underlined their “commitment” to the deployment of the force, which will return to “create the necessary security conditions for the conduct of free and fair elections”, according to State Department press release.

Haiti, which has neither a president nor a parliament, has been holding elections since 2016 and Ariel Henri, who was named prime minister by President Jovenel Moise days before he was assassinated in 2021, was expected to step down in early 2021. February.

Closed public services

Due to of the wave of violence in the capital, the US embassy is curtailing its activitysaid a representative of the US Foreign Ministry.

The hasty evacuation of diplomats took place overnight from Saturday to Sunday by helicopters, according to residents.

“All of the staff members who were evacuated work for the US government,” a US official said, adding that instead, security teams had been moved to Port-au-Prince to strengthen measures at the embassy.

Public administration services and schools in the capital have been closed for dayswhile the international airport is not operating, raising concern about the supply of the population of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Access to the health system is almost impossible, as “hospitals were attacked by gangs that forced medical staff and patients to leave”, not excluding even “newborns”, according to the IOM.

Pope Francis said yesterday that he was watching “with concern and pain” the “serious crisis”, calling on “all” parties to work for peace.

According to IOM estimates, 362,000 people, more than half of whom are children, are forcibly displaced, a number that has increased by leaps and bounds (+15%) since the beginning of the year.

“Since last night we haven’t been able to sleep. We have fled (…) without knowing where to go,” said a civil servant who was forced to leave her home.

One glimmer of hope: five people kidnapped in Port-au-Prince in February, including four clergy, have been freed, the Catholic church announced yesterday, calling for the release of two other people who remain hostages.