Haiti’s government has extended the state of emergency around the capital Port-au-Prince for another month after gang violence escalated sharply. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee in recent days, and a total of over 300,000 Haitians are said to have had to leave their homes because of the gang violence.
The health care system is approaching collapse, warns the UN agency for the coordination of humanitarian aid, OCHA.
There is a lack of staff, care places, medicines and blood at the same time as patients with gunshot wounds pour into the hospitals, according to OCHA.
The gang leader warns of genocide
The crisis in Haiti deepened further in early March when the country’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Kenya for a negotiation on deploying foreign troops against the criminal gangs.
Notorious gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier is now warning of a “civil war that will end in genocide” if the Prime Minister remains in office. Prime Minister Henry is currently not in Haiti, but in Puerto Rico according to CNN sources.
UN in crisis meeting
The UN Security Council gathered on Monday for a crisis meeting. The Security Council demands preparations for a new democratic election to be held in the country, and that armed groups stop their insurgency attempts immediately.
The EU has also decided to recall all its staff from Haiti, citing “the dramatic deterioration of the security situation”. The United States has also begun evacuating all non-essential personnel from the embassy in Port-au-Prince.
Eighth place in the conflict index
Haiti is one of ten countries in the world where the level of conflict is classified as “extreme” by the organization ACLED, which maps conflicts worldwide.
They end up in eighth place in ACLED’s conflict index based on lethality, danger to civilians, geographical spread and fragmentation of armed groups.