Haiti’s main airport closed as gang violence rises and new prime minister sworn in – Boston News, Weather, Sports

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s international airport was closed Monday after gangs opened fire on a commercial flight landing in Port-au-Princeprompting some airlines to temporarily suspend operations as the country swore in a new interim prime minister who promised to restore peace.

The Spirit Airlines flight en route from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Port-Au-Prince was just a few hundred meters from landing in the Haitian capital when gangs opened fire on the plane hitting a flight attendant who sustained injuries light, according to the airline, USA. Embassy and flight tracking data. The flight was diverted and landed in the Dominican Republic.

Photos and video obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes dotting the interior of a plane.

The shooting appeared to be part of what the US Embassy called “gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince, which may include armed violence and disruptions to roads, ports and airports.” Spirit, JetBlue and American Airlines said Monday they were canceling flights to and from Haiti.

Elsewhere in the Haitian capital, fighting broke out between gangs and police. Gunshots rang out in the streets as heavily armed officers ducked behind walls and civilians fled in terror. In other upper-class areas, gangs set fire to houses. Schools closed as panic spread in several areas.

The unrest comes a day after a council aimed at restoring democratic order in the Caribbean nation. fired interim prime minister Garry Conillereplacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. The council was marked by infighting and three members were recently accused of corruption.

As he was sworn in, Fils-Aimé said his top priorities were restoring peace to the crisis-stricken nation and holding elections, which have not been held in Haiti since 2016.

“There is a lot to be done to restore hope,” he told a room of suit-wearing diplomats and security officials. “I feel deeply sorry for the people … who have been victimized, forced to leave everything they have.”

The country has seen weeks of political chaos, which observers have warned could lead to more violence in a place where bloodshed has become the new normal. The country’s gangs have long capitalized on political unrest to seize power, shutting down airports, shipping ports and stirring up chaos.

The United Nations estimates gangs control 85 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, while a UN-backed mission run by the Kenyan police to quell gang violence due to lack of funding and staffing, prompting calls for a UN peacekeeping mission.

Louis-Henri Mars, executive director of Lakou Lapè, an organization that works to build peace in violent areas of Haiti, said the political struggles “have allowed gangs to have more freedom to attack more neighborhoods in the city and to and extend control over the Port. au-Prince.” Civilians, he fears, will suffer the consequences.

“There will be more lives lost, more internal displacement and more hunger in a country where half the population is on the brink of starvation,” he said.

The Transitional Council was established in April, tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and cabinet, with hopes of helping quell the violence that erupted after the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

The council was meant to pave the way for democratic elections, but was marred by politics and infighting and he was long at odds with Conillethe interim prime minister they elected six months ago, whom they dismissed yesterday. The gangs capitalized on that power vacuum to grab their own powers.

Conille criticized the board’s decision to fire him, calling it an illegal overreach of their powers.

“This resolution, taken outside any legal and constitutional framework, raises serious concerns about its legitimacy and its repercussions on the future of our country,” he wrote in a letter.

Organizations, including the Organization of American States, tried and failed last week to mediate the differences in an attempt to save the fragile transition.

On Monday, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric urged all those involved in Haiti’s democratic transition to “work together constructively”, though he stopped short of offering an opinion on the move to oust Conille .

“Overcoming their differences and putting country first remains essential,” he said. “What is important is that Haitian political leaders put Haiti’s interests first.”

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Associated Press reporter David Koenig contributed to this report in Dallas and Pierre-Richard Luxama in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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