The U.S. Embassy in Haiti issued a security alert this week, urging its citizens living in the violence-plagued country to “depart as soon as possible” via “commercial or private transportation.” The ultimatum comes just weeks after the same office was temporarily closed due to several reported shootings nearby.
In the statement, authorities in the capital, Port-Au-Prince, also advised people to “exercise extreme caution when traveling throughout the country” and to “avoid demonstrations and large gatherings of people,” which have been made dangerous in part by the violent response of armed gangs.
During the week, at least ten people were killed during an armed protest in the northern part of the capital. The march was led by an evangelical leader who drove a large armed crowd into the gang-controlled area of Canaan, in the suburbs of the capital. Shortly after the raid, gang members opened fire, resulting in bloodshed.
The national police have launched an investigation and now want to ensure that “such irrational acts never happen again. Engulfed by urban violence and seeing a flawed state response to it, Haitian citizens began to take the law into their own hands, with brutal episodes of alleged gang members being beaten and burned to death by civilians earlier this year.
The embassy’s warning also comes just days after U.S. nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter were released from a 13-day kidnapping, which only raised more concerns about the situation of foreigners in Haiti.
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