Authorities in Haiti on Thursday extended a state of emergency in the capital Port-au-Prince for another month, as the poor Caribbean country faces a surge in gang violence.
While control of large areas of the capital has returned to the benefit of criminal gangs, the official newspaper published a
“decree establishing a state of security emergency over the entire extent of the West department”
, which includes Port -au-Prince,
“for a period of one month”
.
A first state of emergency and a curfew - difficult to enforce - had already been declared on Sunday after the attack on prisons by gangs which caused the escape of thousands of inmates.
A new nighttime curfew was also decreed on Thursday, until Monday, from 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. in the West department.
“The state of emergency is renewed for one month, and the curfew will be applied if necessary
,” a government source assured AFP.
On Wednesday evening, a new police station was set on fire in Port-au Prince, Lionel Lazarre, general coordinator of the National Union of Haitian Police Officers (Synapoha), told AFP, but the police had time to leave before the 'attack.
According to this union official, the assault had been planned since last weekend.
Ten police buildings destroyed and two civilian prisons emptied
Criminal gangs, who control the roads leading from Port-au-Prince to the rest of the territory, have attacked strategic sites in the country in recent days.
According to a Synapoha count, since the start of the coordinated gang attacks, 10 police buildings have been destroyed and two civilian prisons attacked and emptied of their inmates.
An influential gang leader, Jimmy Chérizier known as “Barbecue”, assured Tuesday that if Prime Minister Ariel Henry did not resign and if the international community continued to support him, the country was going
“straight towards a civil war which will lead to a genocide”
.
Ariel Henry, who should have left office at the beginning of February, was abroad and has still not managed to return to Haiti, prevented in particular by the lack of security around the international airport.
Thursday morning, he was still in Puerto Rico, the border police spokesperson for this American Caribbean territory told AFP.
The crisis in Haiti
“is more than unbearable for the Haitian people
,” denounced Wednesday the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, while the Security Council spoke of a
“critical”
situation. .
While administrations and schools remain closed, many residents are trying to flee the violence.