More than 30 Americans arrive in Miami from Cap-Haïten as US urges citizens to leave ‘as soon as possible’ amid gang violence

A charter flight carrying dozens of US citizens fleeing spiraling gang violence in Haiti landed on Sunday in Miami, state department officials said.

More than 30 US citizens were on the government-chartered flight, officials said in a statement. It arrived in Miami ’s international airport after the US embassy in Port-au-Prince earlier this month urged US citizens to leave “as soon as possible” as chaos grips Haiti .

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Only a single hospital in Port-au-Prince remains open, with others devoid of staff as patients look for care and the dead pile up

Haiti’s healthcare system has all but collapsed amid the ferocious gang insurrection which forced the resignation of the country’s prime minister, leaving victims of the violence with little hope of medical attention, according to aid workers in the stricken Caribbean country.

In the past two weeks hospitals have been set ablaze, doctors murdered and the most basic medical supplies have now dried up. Only a single public hospital in Haiti’s capital now remains operational – and that too is expected to shut its doors soon.

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Successive foreign governments plunged it into unpayable debt and left its citizens in penury

In December 1914, the USS Machias dropped anchor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Eight US marines disembarked, sauntered to the Banque National de la République d’Haïti (BNRH), removed $500,000 worth of gold belonging to the Haitian government – $15m in today’s money – packed it in wooden crates to carry back to the ship and thence to New York , where it was deposited in the vaults of the investment bank, Hallgarten & Co.

The BNRH was Haiti’s central bank. It was also a foreign private corporation. Originally set up in 1880 through a concession granted to a French bank, pressure from America brought in US investors. By 1920, the BNRH was wholly owned by the American National City Bank. Haiti’s central bank it may have been but the Haitian government was charged for every transaction and the eye-popping profits spirited off to Paris or New York.

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Haitians endure long queues for food in neighboring Dominican Republic but humanitarian crisis set to intensify

Hundreds of Haitian women lined the road at the border with Dominican Republic, each one with a brightly coloured headscarf and a bulky package balanced on her head. Some seemed far to old to be carrying such loads, others were raw-boned girls barely into their teens, all waiting in a long queue to cross back into their country.

Wiry porters pushed red-rusted wheelbarrows with loads of soft drinks or yams so high they could barely peer over them. Younger men on motorized rickshaws revved impatiently, eager to deliver their loads and rush back for more before the border closed.

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Experts say most guns smuggled from states with lax firearms laws such as Florida, Arizona and Georgia

As Haiti has again plunged into violent chaos, images of gang members bearing high-powered rifles, pump action shotguns or automatic weapons in the streets of Port-au-Prince have become ubiquitous.

But this weaponry is not made in Haiti, a country with no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities.

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Plan for transitional council to rule after prime minister’s resignation brings strong sense of deja vu

The announcement of a new transitional council to rule Haiti, as prime minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation amid a violent gang uprising, has brought a strong sense of deja vu.

Those tipped for seats on the council are familiar figures associated with political parties and coalitions which have been key players in the country’s long-running crisis of political legitimacy. Even the decision to include representatives of Haiti’s tiny, oligarchic business elite is a reminder that though things change, they remain the same.

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Ariel Henry will step down after transitional council is set up, amid an armed uprising by Haiti’s gangs to topple the government

Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has issued his resignation, Guyana president Irfaan Ali said on Monday, leaving an unelected role he has held since the 2021 assassination of the country’s previous president.

“We acknowledge his resignation upon the establishment of a transitional presidential council and naming of an interim prime minister,” said Ali, who is also the Caribbean Community chair, thanking Henry for his service to Haiti.

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Matt Knight, a British aid worker, tells of ferocious gun battles between security forces and gangs that keep him up at night

• Haiti: what caused the gang violence crisis?

A British aid worker who is one of dozens of foreigners stranded in Haiti after a gang insurrection against the government has described the “fear and bewilderment” of being marooned in a city under siege.

Matt Knight, the director for the Irish humanitarian aid agency Goal Global in Haiti, flew into its capital, Port-au-Prince, from Europe three days before the uprising against Prime Minister Ariel Henry began on 29 February.

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Officials say marines deployed for night-time evacuation amid intense fighting in Port-au-Prince

The US has reportedly started airlifting embassy staff out of Haiti under the cover of darkness after dozens of heavily armed gang fighters tried to seize the political quarter of its capital, Port-au-Prince.

Haiti’s gangs began an offensive to topple the government on 29 February, storming and ransacking police stations, prisons and hospitals and laying siege to strategic locations, including the port and airport.

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