Haiti's main port closes as gang violence spirals

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Intruders broke into a major port terminal in Haiti Thursday as violence in the country escalated after the government extended its state of emergency.

The Haitian government decreed the state of emergency would be extended to April 3 in the country’s West Region and the capital Port-au-Prince. A curfew has been extended to March 10.

It comes as Port-au-Prince’s Caribbean Port Services (CPS) terminal, a major player in Haiti’s food import supply chain, was broken into around 8 a.m., two security sources told CNN. The intruders headed to the terminal’s gated warehouse area that houses many containers, the sources said.

Video of the port on Thursday showed hundreds of people on the streets around the facility and what appeared to be dozens of people breaking into the gated warehouse. CPS did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

The source said the unrest at the port continues.

Port-au-Prince has been gripped by a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks on law enforcement and state institutions in what one gang leader, Jimmy Cherizier, has described as an attempt to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government.

A law enforcement officer at a police station set on fire by armed gangs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 5, 2024.

Armed groups have burned down police stations and released thousands of inmates from two prisons, and Cherizier has warned of “a civil war that will end in genocide” if the prime minister does not step down, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The chaos has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes in the past few days, adding to the more than 300,000 already displaced by gang violence.

It is also affecting the distribution of essential supplies by aid organizations. The World Food Programme suspended its maritime transport services in Port-au-Prince from distributing aid across Haiti due to the instability.

Two dozen trucks of aid, filled with food, medical supplies, and equipment, are stuck at the port in Port-au-Prince, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a Thursday statement.

Maritime routes are the only way to transport aid, especially food and medical supplies for humanitarian and development organizations, from Port-au-Prince to the rest of the country, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General and OCHA.