Regional Leaders Meet in Jamaica As Haiti Continues Descent Into Anarchy

Regional leaders will meet in Jamaica on Monday for an urgent meeting aimed at addressing the situation in Haiti, which last week reached a new level of crisis as a coalition of armed gangs laid siege to various parts of the country’s capital of Port au Prince.

Non-essential personnel from the United States Embassy in the city were airlifted out by U.S. Marines on Sunday, some of whom stayed behind to boost embassy security after the latest wave of fighting, which targeted Port au Prince’s political quarter. Reporting on the ground indicates that the German ambassador as well as other EU officials have also fled the country as fighting intensified. Germany’s foreign ministry indicated that its diplomats, currently in the Dominican Republic, will work from there “until further notice.”

Haiti has been gripped by intense violence and instability since the 2021 assassination of sitting president Jovenel Moise, as armed gangs seized on the uncertainty and power vacuum by trying to establish violent control of increasing swathes of the capital and its surroundings. However, things took an intense turn at the end of February, when the gang coalition led by Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer turned gang leader who has adopted the sobriquet “Barbecue”, attacked several strategic locations including police stations, prisons, hospitals, and the airport.

Thousands of prison inmates are now roaming free after the attack on two prisons in the capital on March 2, one of them the national penitentiary which reportedly housed over 4,000 people. Last Saturday, dozens of residents broke into a public building, retreating there in the belief that it would offer more safety than their homes.