Haiti’s main airport is closed as gang violence increases and a new prime minister is sworn in

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s international airport was closed Monday after gangs opened fire on a commercial flight landing in Haiti Port-Au-PrinceThis has prompted 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 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Port-Au-Prince was just hundreds of yards from landing in Haiti’s capital when mobs shot at the plane attacking a flight attendant, who the airline said suffered minor injuries. Embassy and flight tracking information. The flight was diverted and landed in the Dominican Republic.

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

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

Gunfights broke out between gangs and police in other parts of Haiti’s capital. Gunshots echoed through the streets as heavily armed officers ducked behind walls and civilians ran in panic. In other upper-class neighborhoods, mobs set fire to houses. Schools closed as panic spread in some areas.

The unrest comes a day after a council meeting intended to restore democratic order in the Caribbean country fired interim Prime Minister Garry Conillereplacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. The council was characterized 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-hit country and holding elections, which have not been held in Haiti since 2016.

“A lot needs to be done to bring back hope,” he said before a room full of suit-clad diplomats and security officials. “I am deeply sorry for the people… who have been victimized and forced to leave behind everything they own. .”

The country has seen weeks of political chaos, which observers warned could lead to more violence in a place where bloodshed has become the new norm. The country’s gangs have long taken advantage of political unrest to seize power, close airports and shipping ports and cause chaos.

The United Nations estimates that gangs control 85% of the capital of Port-au-Prince, while a UN-backed mission led by the Kenyan police to quell gang violence is facing a lack of funding and staff, 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 fighting “has given the gangs more freedom to attack more neighborhoods in the city and extend their control over Port- expand Haiti. au-Prince. He fears that citizens 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 created in April and tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and cabinet in the hope it would help quell the violence, which exploded after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021.

The council was intended to pave the way for democratic elections. Gangs have taken advantage of that power vacuum to make their own power grabs.

But the council is plagued by politics and infighting, and has been in conflict with it for a long time Gary Conillethe interim Prime Minister whom they selected six months ago and whom they dismissed yesterday.

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

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

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