Four police officers died in exchanges of fire on Thursday, February 29, with gangs in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince; one of the largest armed groups involved having earlier spoken of coordinated attacks to overthrow the disputed prime minister. The day before, Ariel Henry had once again promised to leave power after elections in 2025.
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Violence Thursday left four dead and five injured in the ranks of the police, according to an official of the national union of Haitian police officers, cited by AFP. Two sub-police stations were set on fire, he added. Heavy gunfire was heard the same day in several neighborhoods in the Port-au-Prince area, with security forces trying to repel the attackers who notably targeted police stations, the police academy and other strategic sites such as Toussaint-Louverture international airport. Schools, universities and various public and private institutions have suspended their activities while hundreds of people have taken refuge in their homes. Students from the State University ofHaiti were taken hostage before being released, the dean of the faculty of agronomy Jocelyn Louissaint told AFP. At least one student was shot and injured in the attack, he said.
Several airlines canceled domestic and international flights after projectiles hit planes and parts of a terminal at Toussaint-Louverture airport. The Haitian company Sunrise Airways announced in a press release that it had “ decided to suspend all its flights until further notice, so as not to endanger travelers, ground teams, crews or aircraft “. The American companies Spirit Airlines and American Airlines also canceled their flights to and from Port-au-Prince.
In a video posted Thursday on social networks, gang leader Jimmy Chérisier, aka “Barbecue,” claimed that “ all armed groups will act to obtain the departure of Prime Minister Ariel Henry “. “ We will use all strategies to achieve this objective. We take responsibility for everything that is happening in the streets right now “, he added, a few hours after the attacks began.
Ariel Henry commits to organizing elections in 2025
Since the 2021 assassination of the president Jovenel Moïse, Haiti is facing a serious political, security and humanitarian crisis. Armed gangs have taken control of entire sections of the country and the number of homicides has more than doubled in 2023. In power since 2021, Ariel Henry should have left office at the beginning of February. Wednesday, during the Caribbean Community summit, he pledged to hold elections in 2025as he had already done in 2022… Where he had promised to leave power on February 7, 2024. But according to Caricom, this time it is the right one.
“ During our discussions, particularly with Prime Minister Ariel Henry, concessions were made to move forward on the political process, including holding general elections to restore the government in accordance with the Constitution, no later than August 31, 2025, said Philip Davis, Prime Minister of the Bahamas. To do this, we agreed to set up a team responsible for defining needs. It will be led by Caricom and the United Nations with the support of partners – Canada, the United States and the Organization of American States. »
The most violent month of January in two years, according to the UN
This violence coincides with the 20th anniversary of the coup d’état which ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power and comes at a time when Ariel Henry is in Kenya. To try to help the police overwhelmed by gang violence, the UN Security Council gave its agreement in October to send a mission to Haiti led by Kenya. But its deployment is still pending, a court in Nairobi having blocked the planned dispatch of 1,000 Kenyan police officers at the end of January. On Thursday, the UN announced that five countries (Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad) had confirmed their participation.
Read alsoInternational mission in Haiti: “The gangs are waiting to see what it will look like”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres insisted Thursday on the importance of achieving a “ political solution ” in Haiti. “ Without a political solution, the problem will never be solved “, declared Antonio Guterres upon his arrival on the archipelago of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a small Caribbean country located southeast of Haiti.
The month of January 2024 was “ the most violent in more than two years » in Haiti, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights which deplores that the “ already dire situation » be « further deteriorated, in a context of incessant and increasing gang violence “. The UN launched on Tuesday a call for donations of 674 million dollars to help 3.6 million people in Haitia country facing one of the most serious food crises in the world.