PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Venice-based non-profit Agape Flights postponed service to Haiti this week due to gang attacks on the Toussaint Louverture International Airport that serves Port-au-Prince, the organization announced Wednesday.
The incident represents an escalation in the ongoing violence Haiti has been experiencing since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Agape Flights was advised by “a senior official in Haiti’s aviation authority, as well as the operator of the largest regional airline serving that nation... to not fly to Haiti this week.”
Agape Flights is a Christian aviation ministry that delivers mail and supplies to missionaries in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. The organization also delivers humanitarian aid throughout the Caribbean and offers help sending relief supplies during disasters and emergencies.
“I agree with their assessments and have reluctantly made the decision to delay tomorrow’s planned mission supply flight to Haiti until the situation on the ground is more stable,” the statement said.
On Monday, March 4, Haitian officials said heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of the airport, which was closed at the time due to the threat of violence. An armored truck on the tarmac was seen shooting toward gang militants to keep them from entering the airport grounds as airport staff ran to safety, according to The Associated Press.
The attack on the airport came roughly one day after hundreds of inmates escaped from the country’s two biggest prisons as armed gangs stormed the facilities. The AP, which has journalists on the ground in Port-au-Prince reporting on the crisis, said “almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates fled during the jailbreak” and that three people laid dead at the prison entrance “with no guards in sight.”
The incident forced Haiti’s government to declare a state of emergency.
“The situation in Haiti is heartbreaking. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee for their lives as gang violence envelopes Port-au-Prince and spreads to other areas.”
Agape Flights shared a photo of parents and children who have had to flee and are now living in the Les Cayes commune, about 124 miles west of Port-au-Prince. Agape Flights said one of their mission partners is with the group, who are just a handful of the estimated 15,000 people who have been displaced by the recent unrest, according to aid groups in Haiti.
The United Nations recently said it believes gangs now control about 80 percent of Haiti’s capital city.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who became the de facto leader of the country following the President’s assassination, has been traveling outside of Haiti since this latest outbreak of violence began. Henry has been at the center of political controversy, as he had promised to hold a presidential election when he took power but has postponed those plans for years.
The gang leader behind the violence in Port-au-Prince said on March 5 that the effort to take control of the airport was to prevent Henry from being able to return to Haiti from his travels abroad and threatened a “civil war” if Henry did not resign.
On Wednesday, March 6, the U.S. Department of State called for Prime Minister Henry to “expedite” a presidential election and transition of political power. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. will not provide “any assistance to help the prime minister return to Haiti.”
The United Nations estimates that since the start of the year, “a staggering 1,193 people have been killed, and 692 others injured by gang violence.”