What’s happening in Haiti right now?
The US State Department is warning Americans not to travel to Haiti as the Caribbean nation continues to grapple with spiralling gang violence.Haiti is listed as a Level 4: Do Not Travel destination – an advisory level that was in place even before the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.A state of emergency was declared in the nation last week, while the US Embassy in Haiti issued a security alert saying that the “current security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous”.On Monday, Caribbean leaders and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Jamaica to urgently discuss the crisis.On Monday, Haiti’s prime minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign once a transitional presidential council is created. Kenya announced on Tuesday it would not deploy a previously organised security mission to Haiti as there is no “sitting government” to coordinate with on the ground.The latest violence, which began on 29 February, has seen gang members burn down police stations and raid the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.Heavily armed criminal gangs also attacked major government assets across the capital Port-au-Prince and took control of the country’s main international airports.Al Jazeera/ Original
Transcript
00:00 What's happening in Haiti right now?
00:05 In the last few weeks, gangs have burned police stations, freed over 4,000 inmates and seized
00:10 control of major government assets and airports in Port-au-Prince.
00:13 Haiti's unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation on Monday, March
00:18 11 amidst escalating gang violence that has led to near-total social collapse.
00:23 The crisis stems from President Moises' assassination
00:34 three years ago and the lingering economic effects of the 2010 earthquake.
00:38 In 2023 alone, nearly 4,000 deaths and 3,000 kidnappings were reported due to gang violence.
00:45 And now it's thought over 300,000 have been displaced and half the population is facing
00:50 food insecurity.
00:51 I'm standing here in Port-au-Prince now.
00:53 Obviously, we have a difficult security context here at the minute.
00:58 Goal services in Haiti include water, sanitation.
01:03 We've had to pause some of our services recently because of the security situation, but we
01:08 will be opening our services the minute we can.
01:12 Secretary of State Anthony Blinken traveled to Jamaica on Monday, despite the dangers,
01:16 to address the urgent situation.
01:18 However, the U.S. and EU have begun airlifting embassy workers out of the country.
01:23 1,000 Kenyan police officers had been set to be deployed to Haiti to combat the violence.
01:28 But the effort was paused Tuesday, after Henry's resignation announcement.
01:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]