Haiti Gangs Torch Police Stations As PM’s Future Hangs In Balance

Gangs seeking the removal of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry have set fire to police stations in the city of Port-au-Prince.

According to local media, the police station in the bustling Salomon market is the most recent target.

The three-day state of emergency has now been extended for a month.

When Mr Henry left for a regional summit last week, the city’s violent gangs increased their attacks.

Haiti Gangs Torch Police Stations As PM’s Future Hangs In Balance

The turmoil has disrupted flight traffic, preventing his return.

On Tuesday, Mr Henry attempted to fly back to Port-au-Prince but ended up in Puerto Rico, a US territory.

He was unable to land in the Haitian capital because the international airport was closed while the military fought gunmen’s attempts to take it.

Civil aviation authorities in the neighbouring Dominican Republic similarly turned the prime minister’s plane away, claiming they had not been given the proper flight plan.

Mr Henry has not made any public pronouncements since his journey to Kenya, where he attempted to rescue a pact for the African country to head a multinational army to help restore order in Haiti.

The two leaders inked a reciprocal agreement that allows 2,000 Kenyan police personnel to be transported to Haiti, but a Kenyan opposition legislator has said he will challenge the accord in court.

Meanwhile, numerous Kenyan police officers who had volunteered for the deployment have decided not to go due to safety concerns.

One officer told the BBC that there were no clear guidelines for how they were expected to work while on the assignment. Another said that some of his squad members had withdrawn in response to the recent increase in violence.

Haiti Gangs Torch Police Stations As PM’s Future Hangs In Balance

Gangs in Port-au-Prince have launched a series of coordinated attacks in the absence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Among their priorities were the airport, which they wanted to seize to prevent Mr Henry from returning, and two jails, from which thousands of convicts were released.

According to a tally maintained by the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), they have also set fire to the Croix-des-Bouquets peace court and looted or burnt around 20 other structures.

At least six police officers have been slain, and the National Police Academy has also been destroyed.

Following the storming of the National Penitentiary, numerous prisoners’ bodies were left in the streets.

The violence exacerbated Haiti’s humanitarian problems.

Aid organizations believe that around 15,000 individuals have abandoned their homes in the last week.

Ulrika Richardson, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti, told BBC Newshour that the situation was “extremely dire and very alarming”.

“We have big parts of the capital paralyzed: schools are closed, many hospitals have had to close, either because of a lack of equipment or simply that staff cannot get to work,” she said.

Haiti Gangs Torch Police Stations As PM’s Future Hangs In Balance

Aside from the removal of Mr Henry, the gangs have yet to state their goals.

Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, a former police officer who leads a gang alliance known as G9, has claimed that if Mr Henry does not stand down, there will be a “civil war” that could end in “genocide”.

Caribbean countries and the United States have asked Mr Henry to take steps to “finalize a political accord”.

Irfaan Ali, Guyana’s president and current chair of the regional group Caricom, stated that “a political solution to anchor any stabilization of security and humanitarian efforts” was required.

In a video message, Mr Ali stated that Caricom had been unable “to reach any form of consensus between stakeholders in Haiti” despite round-the-clock efforts to get the government and key figures in the opposition, private sector, civil society, and religious organizations to agree on a course of action.

SOURCE – (BBC)