A woman holding a child runs away from the area after hearing gunshots in Port-au-Prince on March 20 (Photo: AFP).
In a statement, the US State Department confirmed it was beginning to evacuate its citizens from Haiti by helicopter, after nearly 1,600 citizens requested assistance amid reports of continued violence in the Caribbean nation's capital.
"The violence on the ground in Port-au-Prince is serious and the security situation is certainly at risk. We would not conduct such an evacuation if we did not feel safe and did not have the means," US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters on March 21 local time.
Government-chartered planes are in the process of starting to carry evacuees from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, Patel said.
Future evacuation flights will be considered on a daily basis, the spokesman added.
There have been reports of fresh fighting in the Haitian capital, which is controlled by armed gangs, with heavy gunfire reported in some of the wealthiest areas of Port-au-Prince, sources said.
"Sometimes it sounds like two streets away, sometimes it sounds like a kilometer away. But it keeps happening… This is the worst day ever," said one resident.
Haiti has been without a president since Jovenel Moise, who took power in 2017, was assassinated in 2021. The unpopular prime minister and acting president, Ariel Henry, was ousted by rebel gangs.
For more than two weeks, Haiti has been paralyzed by gang violence. More than a week after Prime Minister Henry announced his resignation, the country remains in turmoil due to gang violence.
Despite the measures taken, criminal gangs still control 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince, putting the safety of residents at risk with fears of a humanitarian disaster.
Aid groups say some 1.4 million Haitians are on the brink of famine and more than 4 million need food aid, with most of them having had just one meal a day or nothing to eat in the past few days.
According to a US official, Mr. Henry is currently in Puerto Rico - a US territory - because he was unable to return to Haiti after visiting Kenya to seek support when the recent violence broke out.
Under a proposal by the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a Transitional Council would be responsible for electing an interim prime minister and a council of ministers to try to chart a new course for Haiti. However, so far these efforts have stalled.
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