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FILE PHOTO: Street vendors carry goods for sale as they walk near the Presidential Palace after Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry pledged to step down following months of escalating gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 12, 2024.
The US Embassy in Haiti evacuated more than 30 US citizens who were still in the country on Sunday, as unchecked violence shuttered all but one hospital in the capital.
A chartered flight left from the northern city of Cap-Haitien, where the airport has been occasionally functional. The State Department said it would continue chartering flights as long as it could do so safely. The airport in Port-au-Prince has been closed since gangs attacked it on March 4 to prevent the return of now-outgoing Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Gangs have also ransacked and burned multiple hospitals in the capital. A BBC crew who went to the State University of Haiti hospital found no staff in the facility, which was full of patients, and at least one corpse.
Is there hope? Six parties confirmed they would participate in a transitional council to replace Henry, but former Senator Jean-Charles Moïse rejected the seat he was offered. Moïse said he prefers an alternate council organized by convicted drug trafficker Guy Philippe, which lacks international support.
It’s all talk until someone can tackle the heavily armed gangs. Haitian police say they mounted an attack against the most powerful gang leader and self-declared revolutionary, Jimmy Chérizier, aka Barbecue, on Saturday, but failed to kill or capture him.