US resumes deportation flights to Haiti despite continuing bloodshed

Critics condemn ‘reckless and cruel’ expulsions and say deportees likely to be targeted by armed gangs who control much of country

More than 70 Haitians expelled from the United States have been flown back to Haiti on the first deportation flight since heavily armed gangs launched a bloody insurrection which has paralysed the capital and forced the prime minister from office.

The flight, which landed in the port city of Cap-Haïtien early on Thursday, was described as “inhumane” by human rights activists who warned that deportees would likely be targeted by the criminal factions who control most of the country.

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France urged to repay billions of dollars to Haiti for independence ‘ransom’

Coalition of civil society groups says Paris should return harsh reparations imposed on Caribbean state two hundred years ago

France should repay billions of dollars to Haiti to cover a debt formerly enslaved people were forced to pay in return for recognising the island’s independence, according to a coalition of civil society groups that is launching a new push for reparations.

The Caribbean island state became the first in the region to win its independence in 1804 after a revolt by enslaved people. But in a move that many Haitians blame for two centuries of turmoil, France later imposed harsh reparations for lost income and that debt was only fully repaid in 1947.

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‘The city is a jail’: Haitian journalists get word out about gang violence

Correspondents in Port-au-Prince face danger as they play a vital role in chronicling city’s state of siege

Each day, Makenson Rémy wakes in the hush of the night to tell the story of his shattered home town, Port-au-Prince. Each day, he fears he might die. “I am very worried for the city. I am worried for my family. I am worried for myself too, because at any moment I could go out and never come back,” said the Haitian journalist who is responsible for the crack-of-dawn radio broadcasts that help the capital’s jittery residents stay alive.

Rémy uses a motorbike to move around the city, which a gang rebellion six weeks ago has almost entirely cut off from the outside world, gathering information on where is and isn’t safe to tread. As he slaloms through barricaded streets under the cover of darkness, he has witnessed spine-chilling scenes.

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‘It is simply best not to get pregnant’: women left terrified as Haiti’s maternity services collapse

Delivering a baby was already risky, but an unprecedented surge in gang violence has forced clinics and hospitals to close

The worst fears of midwives at Heartline Haiti were realised last week. As they prepared the maternity clinic for patients that evening, armed men laid siege to their neighbourhood in eastern Port-au-Prince, spraying bullets at police and rival gangs, setting cars on fire and ransacking houses.

“All of our staff were huddled in an interior hallway hearing the noises outside the gates and walls, afraid they may be next,” says Tara Livesay, the NGO’s executive director. “A gang member was shot dead outside, just two doors over.”

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Top UN expert warns of deteriorating situation in Haiti: ‘It’s apocalyptic’

Human rights expert voices alarm, saying country is fast moving towards becoming ‘like Somalia in the worst of its times’

The UN’s top expert on human rights in Haiti has warned the Caribbean country is rapidly moving towards becoming “like Somalia in the worst of its times” after a criminal uprising which has displaced tens of thousands of people and largely cut its capital city off from the world.

Just over a month after the gang rebellion began, William O’Neill – an American human rights lawyer who has been travelling to Haiti for more than 30 years – voiced alarm over the rapidly deteriorating situation in Port-au-Prince.

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Two men in Haiti suspected of buying weapons for gangs lynched by mob

Killings underscore how outnumbered police are in Haiti after months of attacks and kidnappings by gangs

Two men in Haiti were hacked to death by a mob who thought they were buying weapons for gangs, police said Saturday.

Police confirmed the crowd snatched the men from police custody after they were found with about $20,000 (£16,000) and the equivalent of about $43,000 in Haitian cash in their car, along with two pistols and a box of ammunition.

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‘It’s mission impossible’: fear grows in Kenya over plan to deploy police to Haiti

Deal to send hundreds of officers to Caribbean country amid spiraling gang violence is facing intense public and legal scrutiny

Haiti’s raging gang insurrection has prompted growing concern in Kenya over plans to deploy hundreds of paramilitary police officers from the East African country on a UN-backed multinational mission to counter the violence.

“If they come back in body bags, what will [Kenyan President William Ruto] tell the nation?” said Ekuru Aukot, leader of the opposition Thirdway Alliance, who last year filed a legal challenge against the deployment.

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How gangs took control of Haiti – podcast

Haiti has erupted into violence after gangs laid waste to the capital and forced the prime minister to resign. But Haitians are wary from bitter experience of outside forces intervening to find a solution to the crisis

A few weeks ago, two of the main criminal gangs in Haiti joined forces, staging a full-scale insurrection while the prime minister, Ariel Henry, was travelling abroad. Thousands of gang members took over government buildings, police stations and hospitals and broke into prisons, where they released thousands more gang members into their ranks. Before long, it was clear that the Haitian government and the police had lost control of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Widlore Mérancourt, the editor-in-chief of Haiti’s Ayibo Post, tells Michael Safi that for the first time he fears for his life while reporting from Port-au-Prince, such is the violent chaos there.

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US starts to helicopter citizens out of Haiti as fighting erupts in wealthy areas

State department organizes evacuation after nearly 1,600 US citizens ask for help amid reports of continuing violence in capital

The United States has said it was starting to evacuate its citizens out of Haiti by helicopter, amid reports of fresh fighting in the Caribbean country’s gang-dominated capital, with particularly fierce gunfire in some of the city’s wealthiest enclaves.

A state department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, told reporters on Wednesday that government-chartered aircraft were in the process of beginning to ferry evacuees from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

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At least a dozen dead as gang violence spills into wealthy areas of Haiti capital

Gunmen looted homes in Laboule and Thomassin, forcing residents to flee previously peaceful neighborhoods

• Haiti: what caused the gang violence and will it end now the PM has quit?

Gunmen have assaulted two upscale neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital in an attack that left at least a dozen people dead in surrounding areas and suggested that a gang insurrection that prompted the prime minister to resign is far from over.

Assailants looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise on Monday, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police. Both neighborhoods had previously remained largely peaceful despite a surge in gang attacks across Port-au-Prince that began on 29 February.

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US citizens flee Haiti on government-chartered flight

More than 30 Americans arrive in Miami from Cap-Haïten as US urges citizens to leave ‘as soon as possible’ amid gang violence

A charter flight carrying dozens of US citizens fleeing spiraling gang violence in Haiti landed on Sunday in Miami, state department officials said.

More than 30 US citizens were on the government-chartered flight, officials said in a statement. It arrived in Miami’s international airport after the US embassy in Port-au-Prince earlier this month urged US citizens to leave “as soon as possible” as chaos grips Haiti.

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Haiti healthcare system on verge of collapse as gang warfare rages on

Only a single hospital in Port-au-Prince remains open, with others devoid of staff as patients look for care and the dead pile up

Haiti’s healthcare system has all but collapsed amid the ferocious gang insurrection which forced the resignation of the country’s prime minister, leaving victims of the violence with little hope of medical attention, according to aid workers in the stricken Caribbean country.

In the past two weeks hospitals have been set ablaze, doctors murdered and the most basic medical supplies have now dried up. Only a single public hospital in Haiti’s capital now remains operational – and that too is expected to shut its doors soon.

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Guns and weapons trafficked from US fueling Haiti gang violence

Experts say most guns smuggled from states with lax firearms laws such as Florida, Arizona and Georgia

As Haiti has again plunged into violent chaos, images of gang members bearing high-powered rifles, pump-action shotguns or automatic weapons in the streets of Port-au-Prince have become ubiquitous.

But this weaponry is not made in Haiti, a country with no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities.

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Can Haiti avoid history repeating as burning streets meet vying elites?

Plan for transitional council to rule after prime minister’s resignation brings strong sense of deja vu

Scenes of unrest in Haiti, as Ariel Henry announced his resignation as prime minister amid a violent gang uprising, have brought a strong sense of deja vu.

An international proposal for a transitional council to rule the country appeared to be crumbling on Wednesday. But those jostling for influence are familiar figures associated with political parties, coalitions, and the tiny oligarchic business elite that have been key players in the country’s long-running crisis of political legitimacy.

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Haiti PM Ariel Henry resigns after gang insurrection caused days of chaos

Henry urges people to remain calm while his government is replaced by a transitional council

The embattled Haitian prime minister, Ariel Henry, has resigned after a gang insurrection against his government plunged the country into anarchy and prevented his return from a trip to Kenya.

Henry, who is now in Puerto Rico, said he would formally quit after the installation of a transitional council to lead the Caribbean state, which has been submerged in chaos since the assassination of its president Jovenel Moïses in July 2021 by Colombian mercenaries.

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Stranded Haiti aid worker describes city under siege: ‘Fear and bewilderment’

Matt Knight, a British aid worker, tells of ferocious gun battles between security forces and gangs that keep him up at night

A British aid worker who is one of dozens of foreigners stranded in Haiti after a gang insurrection against the government has described the “fear and bewilderment” of being marooned in a city under siege.

Matt Knight, the director for the Irish humanitarian aid agency Goal Global in Haiti, flew into its capital, Port-au-Prince, from Europe three days before the uprising against Prime Minister Ariel Henry began on 29 February.

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US airlifts embassy staff out of Haiti as gangs besiege political area

Officials say marines deployed for night-time evacuation amid intense fighting in Port-au-Prince, while German and EU representatives also leave

The US military has carried out an operation in Haiti to airlift non-essential embassy personnel from the country and added US forces to bolster embassy security, after dozens of heavily armed gang fighters tried to seize the political quarter of its capital, Port-au-Prince.

The German foreign ministry meanwhile said its ambassador joined other EU representatives in leaving for the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

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Is the feared gang boss ‘Barbecue’ now the most powerful man in Haiti?

Jimmy Chérizier says he’s leading Haiti’s poor against corrupt government forces but experts point to a dark and violent past

Murals in the pauperized Haitian slums he rules liken him to the Argentinian guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

In interviews, he poses as a God-fearing Caribbean Robin Hood and celebrates freedom fighters and agitators including Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara and Malcolm X.

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Haiti crisis: gangs attack police stations as Caribbean leaders call for emergency meeting

National palace guards set up security ring after gangs attack at least three police stations in Port-au-Prince

Police and palace guards worked on Saturday to retake some streets in Haiti’s capital after gangs launched massive attacks on at least three police stations.

Guards from the National Palace accompanied by an armored truck tried to set up a security perimeter around one of the three downtown stations after police fought off an attack by gangs late Friday.

Sporadic gunfire continued to be reported on Saturday. The unrelenting gang attacks have paralysed the country for more than a week and left it with dwindling supplies of basic goods. Haitian officials extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew on Thursday as gangs continued to attack key state institutions.

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Haiti crisis: heavy gunfire reported close to Port-au-Prince’s national palace

Large-scale gang assault on multiple government buildings in capital reported as violence causes political crisis to spiral out of control

Heavy gunfire was seen on Friday near Haiti’s national palace in its capital of Port-au-Prince, according to reports by news agency EFE, as political turmoil sparked by prime minister Ariel Henry’s absence continued.

Haiti entered a state of emergency last Sunday after fighting escalated, armed gangs broke inmates out of prison and an estimated 10,000 people were displaced while Henry was in Kenya seeking a deal for an international force to fight Haiti’s gangs.

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