Armed gangs are further expanding their control over the capital Port-au-Prince, a UN special coordinator warned Thursday, as negotiations to form new transitional authorities appear to be nearing completion.

“In the last few days, the gangs have spread to new areas of the capital,” said Ulrika Richardson, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Caribbean country, during a press conference she gave digitally, describing things as “extremely worrying”.

Everyday life is defined by “the barricades, the shootings, the great tension in the streets”, he described, pointing out that “many were forced to leave their neighborhoods” as criminals are now operating in them.

The gangs already controlled 80% of Port-au-Prince in 2023, according to UN estimates, and are accused of a host of atrocities — murders, rapes, looting, kidnappings for ransom…

While the situation yesterday morning was relatively calm, in the afternoon heavy gunfire was heard in the center of the capital and in the suburb of Petion-Ville, residents said.

In the evening, police announced the death of “T Gregg”, a gang leader who had escaped earlier this month from the country’s largest prison.

The leader of the Delmas 95 gang, whose real name was Ernst Zilme, was “mortally wounded” during an exchange of fire with police units “in the Delmas district”, near the capital, police headquarters explained via Facebook.

He had joined the gang alliance ‘Viv Ansanm’, formed by the head of the country’s most powerful gang, Jimmy Sergier, or ‘Barbecue’.

His death was recorded the day after that of another gang leader, the so-called “Macandal”, reportedly by members of a group of self-righteous armed citizens, “Bois Calais”, according to converging sources.

Expedited removal of Americans

The beginning of the week was marked by clashes in Petion-Ville, a suburb where foreign embassies and expensive hotels are located. Armed men tried on Tuesday and the day before Wednesday to take over parts of it. On Monday, it became known that at least fourteen bodies were found there.

The US government announced that it hastily removed 90 citizens of the country yesterday Thursday, with flights of a chartered aircraft, which departed from Cap Haitien (north) for Miami, as well as a helicopter operating flights to the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Haiti, mired for years in a multi-dimensional crisis, mainly political and public security, has been faced with a rapid escalation of violence since the beginning of this month, when gangs joined forces and launched a series of coordinated attacks in strategic locations of the capital, with the declared objective to overthrow de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henri.

Increasingly contested, the latter was unable to return to his country after a trip to Kenya. He finally agreed to resign on March 11.

That day, during an extraordinary international meeting in Jamaica, with the participation of member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), in which Guyana currently holds the rotating presidency, and present representatives of the UN and other states, including France and the US, mandated Haitian organizations and political factions to form transitional authorities.

The creation of a presidential transitional council was announced, which will consist mainly of representatives of political parties.

After several days of stormy negotiations, the actors who were called to form it seemed yesterday to have settled on the persons who will staff it, while the left-wing Pitit Desalin party, which had initially refused to be represented, revised this decision. However, no official announcement was made.

Humanitarian crisis

The council will be asked to put the country, most of which is controlled by armed gangs, on the road to stability, name a caretaker prime minister and organize elections.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised that all parties involved had “chosen their representative”, according to his spokesman Farhan Haq.

“Barbecue” has threatened to retaliate against anyone who joins the transition council and their families.

Haiti has not had an elected parliament, nor a president, since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in July 2021. Elections have been held since 2016. Prime Minister Henri, who was named by President Moise shortly before his assassination, is supposed to he was leaving office in early February under an agreement a year earlier, but changed his stance, deciding to stay on.

Kenya, which intends to send about a thousand police officers, as part of an international mission to restore security, of which he has offered to lead, announced a few days ago that it was suspending their deployment, but assured that it would proceed once it was formed and assumed power in presidential transition council.

Pending political developments, the humanitarian crisis continues to have enormous dimensions.

“Due to the spread of gangs, 5.5 million people out of a total population of 11.4 million”, in other words almost half of Haitians, are now in need of humanitarian assistance, summarized the UN coordinator Richardson.

The delivery and distribution of aid is difficult as Port-au-Prince’s airport remains closed and parts of the main port continue to be “under attack,” she said.

“Less than half of Port-au-Prince’s health facilities are functioning normally,” the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized yesterday, referring to shortages of medicines and blood.

“The cholera epidemic (…) may rekindle if the crisis continues,” he warned.

At the end of 2022, cholera reappeared in Haiti, an epidemic of which claimed the lives of over 10,000 people from 2010 to 2019. The cholera bacterium had been brought to the Caribbean country unbeknownst to the UN blue-collar workers.