PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
The United States on Tuesday banned all civilian flights to Haiti for a month, a day after three jetliners approaching or departing from its gang-ridden capital Port-au-Prince were hit by gunfire.
The shootings provided a vivid
glimpse of the violent chaos gripping Haiti as a new prime minister took the
reins of a nation ravaged by poverty, chronic political instability and other
woes.
The US Federal Aviation
Administration's move came after a Spirit Airlines jetliner arriving from
Florida in Port-au-Prince was hit by gunfire and had to reroute to the
Dominican Republic.
A flight attendant suffered
minor injuries, and images posted online appeared to show several bullet holes
inside the plane.
Two planes that left the
Haitian capital Monday were also hit, with single bullet holes detected in
post-flight inspections in each case, the airlines said.
Both planes landed safely.
They were a JetBlue flight to JFK Airport in New York and an American Airlines
flight to Miami.
Prime Minister Alix Didier
Fils-Aime was sworn in Monday, replacing outgoing premier Garry Conille, who
was appointed in May but became embroiled in a power struggle with the
country's unelected transitional council.
Haiti remained cut off from
the rest of the world, with its main airport closed and bursts of gunfire
ringing out in several neighborhoods of the capital.
Many stores and schools were
shuttered as people feared more attacks by the powerful and well-armed gangs
that control some 80 percent of the city, even though a Kenyan-led
international force has been deployed to help the outgunned Haitian police
restore order.
Violent crime in the capital
city remains high, with gang members routinely targeting civilians and
robberies, rapes and kidnappings are rampant.
The transitional council,
aiming to put Haiti on a path to voting in 2026, had been tasked with
stabilizing a country that has no president or parliament and last held
elections in 2016.
The United States on Tuesday
called on Haiti's leaders to put personal interests aside and concentrate on
getting the country back on its feet.
"The acute and immediate
needs of the Haitian people mandate that the transitional government prioritize
governance over the competing personal interests of political actors,"
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The Caribbean nation has long
struggled with political instability, poverty, natural disasters and gang
violence.
But conditions sharply
worsened at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks
in the capital, saying they wanted to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel
Henry.
Despite the arrival of the
Kenyan-led support mission in June, violence has continued to soar.
A recent United Nations report
said more than 1,200 people were killed in Haiti from July through September,
with persistent kidnappings and sexual violence against women and girls.
The report said the gangs were
digging trenches, using drones and stockpiling weapons as they change tactics
to confront the Kenyan-led police force.
Gang leaders have strengthened
defenses for the zones they control and placed gas cylinders and Molotov
cocktail bombs ready to use against police operations.
No comments:
Post a Comment