Important Takeaways:
- Panic set in around downtown Port-au-Prince on Monday as wild shooting filled the streets of Haiti’s capital, with heavy gunfire near the national palace.
- The latest violence to rock the Caribbean island nation comes as the outgoing prime minister signaled that a broad transitional council is nearly finalized and seen as key to ending the current social and political crisis and paving the way for new elections.
- Reuters saw civilians rush to escape gunfire in the capital, where rival gangs control wide swathes of territory, three weeks after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced plans to step down pending the creation of the council and the appointment of an interim leader.
- In a government statement, Henry said the nine members of the council have been forwarded on from regional body CARICOM, but he did not release the names.
- Henry noted that a council of ministers must still discuss outstanding legal questions later on Monday in order to finalize the transition.
- The discussions threaten to further delay an already prolonged resolution to Haiti’s lack of a functioning government.
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Important Takeaways:
- World stalls on a promised intervention for Haiti
- A woman hustles her young child into a waiting car as she shields his eyes. They’re fleeing anarchy.
- The reason lies in the street before their house: A burned corpse; the remains of a suspected gang member killed by their neighbors.
- His knees are bent and torso pitched forward as if in supplication, metal wires wrapped around the charred flesh.
- Now even the holdouts are leaving amid an unprecedented frenzy of terror in the Caribbean nation.
- Human remains are lying in the streets, yet the multinational security mission long touted by Haiti’s neighbors as a game-changer for its gang problem is nowhere to be found.
- “We are ready for (the) multinational support force,” Baptiste said. “We’re ready to work with them. But the plan to receive the mission is not laid out; we think the mission will fail like the others because there is no framework to work together.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Former Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe says there’s a ‘total void of law and order’ on stricken island, as power station attacks leave much of capital in darkness
- Haiti descended into darkness overnight as gangs attacked electrical stations, leading Former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe to call for law and order to be restored on the island.
- Nearly 1.5 million Haitians are on the brink of famine as armed gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier attempts to seize power.
- The nations power company announced on Monday that four substations in the capital and elsewhere, ‘were destroyed and rendered completely dysfunctional.
- As a result, swaths of Port-au-Prince were without power, including the entrance to the U.S. embassy, the Cite Soleil slum, the Croix-des-Bouquets community and a hospital.
- ‘Law and order needs to be restored in Haiti as there is a huge security void and breakdown,’ Lamothe said on Tucker Carlson Uncensored.
- The former prime minister said Haiti had a strong military and police force until Jean-Bertrand Aristide became president and then he disbanded them out of a lack of trust, which has created the void in security the country is seeing now.
- He claimed Haiti is the only country in the Western Hemisphere outside of Costa Rica that has no military and that has the biggest gang activity after El Salvador.
- ‘That created a void. And that created a situation where we have to deal with that void is filled by gangs,’ Lamothe said.
- Gangs attacked two upscale neighborhoods near the capital city of Port-au-Prince and killed at least two dozen people in the rampage on Monday.
- Gunmen looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police.
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Important Takeaways:
- Since the start of the month, criminal groups have been attacking with unprecedented coordination the last remnants of the Haitian state – the airport, police stations, government buildings, the National Penitentiary.
- Leaving the city isn’t an option this time; the airport, under siege by gangs, has been forced to close
- Port-au-Prince’s gangs are still choking off the supply of food, fuel and water across the city
- Fear, mistrust, and anger reign. Death is on everyone’s mind.
- The indelible mark of extrajudicial executions – a stretch of black soot thick and irregular across the pavement – is all that remains of hundreds of suspected criminals killed by residents, their bodies disposed of by flame according to a local security source.
- Today, talk of a political solution sounds more than ever like wishful thinking as long as gunshots ring out in the evenings, puncturing the city’s hush.
- Increasingly, the only thing that everyone shares is trauma.
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Important Takeaways:
- Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry, 74, resigns after gangs warned of civil war and ‘genocide’ if he did not step down amid bloody uprising
- Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry has resigned, following an emergency summit called to address gang-led violence currently occurring in the country.
- The 74-year-old head of state tendered his resignation Monday, a week after the growing coalition of gangs warned of civil war if he did not step down.
- His resignation was swiftly confirmed by Guyana’s president Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the current chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
- The coalition called the emergency meeting as gangs across the Caribbean country continue to unite, shooting up government buildings and foreign embassies.
- As a result, thousands have had fled their homes, and locals continue to report the overwhelming stench of the dead. Meanwhile, politicians across the region are scrambling for a solution – one that may now be in sight following Henry’s removal.
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Important Takeaways:
- US sends in Marines to evacuate embassy personnel from Haiti amid bloody uprising as stench of decaying corpses drive people from their homes and violence threatens to engulf the Dominican Republic
- The US has deployed Marines to evacuate its embassy in Haiti as local gangs continue to attack state institutions.
- The operation, which occurred early Sunday, serves as the latest sign of Haiti’s societal troubles, as locals in its capital continue to report the overwhelming stench of the dead.
- Violence in the Caribbean country broke out this past week, and has since threatened to bring down the local government.
- Gangs across the country continue to unite, causing thousands to flee their homes.
- Politicians across the region are scrambling for a solution, as dogs have been seen gnawing on the unaddressed dead, and bodies are burned in the streets.
- The neighborhood around the embassy in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has been one of the hardest-hit, hence the recent operation. Its success was revealed in a statement from the US military’s Southern Command later in the day.
- The statement went on to reveal how the European Union’s delegation in Haiti has too temporarily closed its offices, amid the looming threat of the localized gangs.
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Important Takeaways:
- Haiti violence sees police ‘attacked with machetes’ as gangs wreak havoc in Port-au-Prince
- Describing the violence in the country, a journalist on the ground told Daily Express US that cannibalism has been witnessed on the streets as the violence reaches “unprecedented” levels.
- Speaking anonymously, they said: “Haiti is living in a total chaotic situation right now. It is total chaos everywhere, especially in the capital where I am right now.
- “Haiti has a leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, but he is not inside the country right now. In the meantime, you have gangs waging full attacks on key institutions.
- “You also have attacks on police stations. On February 28 a police station was attacked. The officers were in there for three hours crying for help, and after that, we saw images of officers being cut by machetes being shared on social media.
- “The gangs are heavily armed with guns from the US, but they are also equipped with high-level technology like drones.
- “The level of violence is unprecedented. The gangs seemingly want to kill as many people as they can. They are in a fear campaign where they want to appear as murderous and as violent as possible.”
- He continued: “For instance, we have seen images of gang leaders eating people they have killed. We have seen images of people being tortured when they are kidnapped.
- “It is senseless. The goal here is not just to ensue fear, but to paralyze people mentally. This is a message that Haiti is under the total control of gangs.”
- Henry is an unpopular acting Prime Minister of Haiti who has been criticized for failing to quell the gangs. He was never elected into his role and is now losing the trust of the country’s population.
- He left the country last week, and his whereabouts remain unclear
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Important Takeaways:
- Haiti orders curfew after gangs overrun its two largest prisons, free thousands of inmates
- Authorities in Haiti have ordered a nighttime curfew after an explosion of violence in which gang gunmen overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.
- A 72-hour state of emergency began Sunday night. The government said it would set out to find the killers, kidnappers and other criminals who fled.
- “The police were ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders,” said a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boivert, the acting prime minister.
- Gangs already were estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, the capital. They are increasingly coordinating their actions and choosing once unthinkable targets like the Central Bank.
- Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the U.N. They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned
- But the attack on the National Penitentiary late Saturday shocked Haitians who are accustomed to living under the constant threat of violence.
- Almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates escaped.
- A second Port-au-Prince prison containing around 1,400 inmates was also overrun.
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Important Takeaways:
- American citizens in Haiti should leave the country “as soon as possible” because of spiraling security and infrastructure “challenges,” the U.S. Embassy said in a travel advisory issued late Wednesday.
- Over the weekend, a Haitian gang opened fire on protesters from a church who sought to confront one gang leader over the surging turmoil. At least seven people were killed.
- If “you encounter a roadblock, turn around and get to a safe area,” a reference to an escalating gang turf war that has seen Haiti consumed by random killings, rapes, extortion and kidnappings.
- Haiti’s gangs have been vying for territory and resources in the wake of the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. They now control large parts of the country.
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Important Takeaways:
- US Orders Government Personnel, Family Members to Leave Haiti
- The U.S. State Department on Thursday ordered non-emergency government personnel and family members to leave Haiti as soon as possible, citing “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.”
- The State Department said U.S. citizens not working for the government should also leave Haiti as soon as possible “by commercial or other privately available transportation options.”
- “Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens. Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned opportunities, and even convoys have been attacked,” the State Department said in a travel advisory.
- Haiti has struggled to contain violence and chaos as heavily armed gangs drive a humanitarian crisis that has displaced tens of thousands amid frequent kidnappings for ransom, gang rapes, tortures and murders.
- The Caribbean nation has not elected a new leader since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7, 2021.
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