Head of government should resign
Gangs attack government buildings in Haiti
March 9, 2024, 5:59 p.m
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For more than a week, massive violence has paralyzed Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, controlled by brutal gangs. After police stations and the airport, they are now attacking several buildings in the government district – and threatening a civil war.
After days of violent gang violence in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, several buildings in the government district were attacked, according to media reports. The suspected bandits’ targets on Friday evening included the National Palace, the Interior Ministry and a regional police headquarters, Haitian and US media reported. Social media users reported intense shooting. The situation apparently calmed down somewhat on Saturday night.
Violence has paralyzed Port-au-Prince for over a week. Police stations were attacked and shots were fired at the airport – all flights were canceled. The health system was on the brink of collapse, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Wednesday. According to him, more than 4,500 prisoners escaped in attacks on two prisons last Saturday. According to a report by the “AyiboPost” portal, the notoriously understaffed police hardly had any presence on the streets of the capital.
The humanitarian situation in Haiti was already very tense. According to the UN, almost half of the Caribbean country’s eleven million residents suffer from acute hunger. Various brutal gangs controlled a total of around 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. Now the two main armed groups joined forces. Their leader, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, threatened civil war if interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry did not resign.
He had agreed to hold elections by the end of August 2025. They would be the first in Haiti since Henry took over government shortly after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. Henry has apparently not returned from a trip abroad because of the security situation. The US government called on him to speed up the process towards elections. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for financing a multinational security mission in Haiti that had already been approved by the UN Security Council.