The U.S. has begun evacuating some Americans trapped in Haiti amid one of the country’s worst periods of political unrest, but hundreds more have asked the State Department for assistance as gangs continue to control larges swaths of the nation’s capital.
Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the State Department, described the ongoing situation in Haiti Tuesday as “dire,” but that government-sponsored flights had ferried some citizens to the nearby Dominican Republic. Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, has erupted in gang violence in recents weeks that has prompted the shutdown of the city’s airport and cut off its main port from receiving food and supplies. Thousands of inmates were freed amid attacks on prisons and more than 15,000 Haitians have been forced from their homes amid the unrest.
The violence has spread to some of the capital’s wealthier areas in recent days, The Guardian reported, and Patel said the situation remained fluid and was changing on a day-by-day basis.
Nearly 1,000 Americans have registered with the embassy via its crisis intake form in recent weeks, although the State Department stressed not all of those people were hoping to leave the country.
“Not everyone who registers with this form or contacts us necessarily is requesting departure assistance,” Patel said. “Some just want to stay in touch with the embassy; some just want to see what information we have to share with them, advice on how they may be able to remain safely, and to potentially stay in touch if they choose to potentially depart in the future.
Axios notes the first charter flight from Haiti organized by the U.S. government landed in Miami on Sunday with more than 30 people aboard. Flights have been able to leave the city of Cap-Haïtien, but officials have warned citizens only to travel to the area “at your own risk.”
The U.S. embassy in Haiti evacuated some staff earlier this month amid a surge in gang violence and deployed security forces to better protect the country’s compound there.
The head of the United Nations’ children’s agency Unicef, Catherine Russell, said scenes in the region resembled something “out of Mad Max.”
“What that means for people is we can’t get aid in, again, it’s very difficult,” Russell told CBS. “Many, many people there are suffering from serious hunger and malnutrition and we’re not able to get enough aid to them. It’s almost like, it’s like a scene out of ‘Mad Max.’ Gangs, vigilantes responding to the gangs…”
Patel said the U.S. would continue to arrange flights when they were feasible to aid stranded Americans, but cautioned the situation was ever-changing amid the unrest.
“We continue to explore options that we have at our disposal when it comes to American citizens interested in departing Haiti from specifically the Port-au-Prince area,” he said. “And we’ll remain in touch with American citizens who have expressed an interest in staying in touch with the embassy and learning about options.”
