Haiti imposed a month-long state of the emergency and curfew on Thursday for the capital of Port-au-Prince, after armed gangs continued their assault on critical government infrastructures. Another police substation was attacked overnight, along with a facility at the main seaport.
The order, an extension of a 72-hour state of emergency first enacted on Sunday, was issued by Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, who has been acting as prime minister while the country’s current head of government, Ariel Henry, remains unable to get back into Haiti.
With the situation growing increasingly chaotic by the hour, gangs targeted the shipping handlers for the National Port Authority and began looting the premises. Several armored vehicles belonging to customers were among the things stolen during looting that went into Thursday, sources confirmed to the Miami Herald.
The renewed attacks on the seaport began last week, when gangs sabotaged a five-megawatt power plant and then returned on Saturday to finish cutting off the electricity. Hundreds of containers, now believed to have been looted, were left without refrigeration.
On Thursday, Boisvert announced that the government is extending the state of emergency and ordered the Haitian national police “to take appropriate measures to regain control of the situation throughout this territory.” The curfew is from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. weekdays and is valid for all of Port-au-Prince and surrounding cities that are part of the west regional departments. On Saturdays and Sundays, the curfew will begin at 8 p.m.
More than 80% of the Port-au-Prince region is under the control of gangs, which in the last week have becoming more united as they launched a series of coordinated attacks in the capital.
“During the period of the state of emergency, all demonstrations on public roads are prohibited, day or night in the West department,” Boisvert said. “The police were ordered to use all illegal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders.”
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, told reporters in New York on Thursday that the alarming escalation in violence has forced the World Food Program to suspend its transport service into Haiti. With armed gangs controlling access roads, the WFP is the only means of transporting food and medical supplies for humanitarian organizations outside the capital.
“There are currently 24 trucks with equipment, medical supplies and other food trucks stuck at the port in Port-au-Prince,” he said. “WFP’s air service is also grounded due to the activities at the airport.”
Dujarric said since March 3 the World Food Program has delivered more than 7,600 hot meals to displaced men, women and children who have been forced out of their homes by gangs. The U.N. International Organization for Migration has also been distributing shelter materials to families.
Despite the access issues, Dujarrric said, “we and our partners are using every window of opportunity to deliver aid.”
Schools across the capital remain closed, and a more in-depth assessment is underway to determine the situation in the capital, Dujarric said.
“The humanitarian community continues to call on all parties to stop the violence, to allow for safe unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance to everyone who needs it — and a lot of people need it urgently,” he said.
Dujarric said a $674 million humanitarian response plan launched by the U.N. for Haiti is only 2.5% funded. “That’s only $17 million dollars,” he said.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council met in a private meeting to discuss the Haiti crisis. They were briefed by Maria Isabel Salvador, Guterres’ special representative and head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti. During the three-hour meeting, Salvador appealed for “urgent action” with the deployment of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission “to prevent the country from plunging further into chaos.”
Dujarric said the U.N. has not yet received official notification from the Kenyan government about the deployment of the multinational mission. Kenya President William Ruto has publicly said that his country is ready to deploy its forces.
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