US ‘concerned’ about Haiti conditions as embassy staff airlifted out: live

US embassy workers are being airlifted out of Haiti following widespread gang takeovers of the island and the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

The US said “concerns” over the conditions — and the potential for continued violence — drove the decision to remove staff from the nation.

US officials and members of Caricom, a group of leaders representing 15 Carribbean nations, have been meeting over the last several days to address the spiralling crisis in Haiti.

Haiti is spiralling further into chaos after armed gang members freed thousands of prisoners, burned government buildings, and forced the prime minister to resign after he fled the country to seek help.

Dozens of people are dead and roughly 15,000 have been forced to flee their homes due to gang raids, according to The Associated Press, with many now facing dwindling supplies of food and water.

The violence escalated on 29 February when Haiti’s powerful criminal gangs, which already controlled large parts of the economy and most of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, launched a series of attacks on police stations, prisons, and other government buildings.

After all the capital’s international airports were seized by gangs, prime minister Ariel Henry was trapped outside the country and faced both domestic and international pressure to resign.

On 5 March, the leader of the unified gangs Jimmy Chérizier — known by his childhood nickname, “Barbecue” — threatened continued violence if Mr Henry did not step down.

He said “if the international community continues to support [Mr Henry], we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide.”

Now-former Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was not allowed to return to the nation after he left to ask for Kenya for help in the form of a security force to help stop gang uprisings.

Mr Henry took power in 2021 after the assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse, ostensibly as an interim until a new election could be called. However, he continually delayed elections, citing security issues in the country.

One of the demands of the gangs that organised and attacked government facilities and ransacked neighborhoods in recent days was that Mr Henry step down.

After his resignation, Kenya said it would not send its security force to Haiti until a sitting government is in place to coordinate their efforts.

Leaders from several Caribbean nations have been working to solidify a transitional council to lead Haiti in the wake of Ariel Henry’s resignation as Prime Minister.

The leaders called a meeting of Caricom, which represents 15 Caribbean countries, on Monday to discuss how to proceed.

Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the president of Guyana, said that “we still have a long way to go” before such a council is established.

Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, the leader of the G9 gang that allied with other Haitian gangs to force the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, warned on 5 March of the violence that would come if Mr Henry remained in power.

He previously said “if the international community continues to support [Mr Henry], we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide.”

“Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us. It’s out of the question for a small group of rich people living in big hotels to decide the fate of people living in working-class neighborhoods,” Mr Cherizier said.

The US pledged to spend $300m to help fund a Kenyan-led security mission to Haiti following increases in gang violence across the nation.

Prior to his resignation, Prime Minister Ariel Henry visited Kenya to ask for security assistance. That prompted a gang-led effort to remove him from office.

Hours after Mr Henry announced he was stepping down, Kenya announced it would not send a security team unless a “sitting government” was in place in Haiti.

“The deal they signed with the president [William Ruto] still stands although the deployment will not happen now because definitely we will require a sitting government to also collaborate with,” Salim Swaleh, Kenya’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told The New York Times.

Haitian leaders using gangs to achieve their ends may have contributed to the current crisis facing the nation, according to one historian.

Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History” told the Associated Press that young, out of work men who organized into gangs were sometimes hired by the government as muscle.

“Now, you have these different politicians that have been collaborating with these gangs for years, and … it blew up in their face,” Mr Deibert said.

The unelected prime minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, annocuned he will step down amid growing gang violence and nearing total social collapse in the Caribbean nation.

Mr Henry informed the nation of his intents in a video he shared late on Monday.

“My government will leave immediately after the inauguration of the council. We will be a caretaker government until they name a prime minister and a new cabinet,” he said. “Haiti needs peace. Haiti needs stability.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters the meeting in Kingston, Jamaica was a “critical moment for Haiti and also all of us”. Meanwhile, he praised Jamaica for its “leadership in the hemisphere that we share.”

Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who chairs CARICOM, the trade bloc holding the talks, said the aim of the meeting was to bring “stability and normalcy” to Haiti, but that Haitian stakeholders “are not where they need to be,” according to AFP.

“Time is not on their side,” Ali warned in a video posted to social media, while describing reports out of Haiti as “dire.”

The US will contribute $300m to a multinational security mission to Haiti led by Kenya, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said following a meeting of Caribbean states on Monday.

“I’m announcing today that the United States Department of Defense is doubling its approved support for the mission from $100 million to $200 million. And that brings the total US support to $300 million for this effort,” Mr Blinken said.

There is no word yet on when the mission will arrive in Haiti.