Tension continued to grip Haiti’s capital Wednesday as violence flared again, sending panicked residents fleeing for safety.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders reported that a mix of police and vigilantes attacked one of their ambulances, slashing tires, tear gassing medical staff and executing at least two patients.
Haitians have long lived with instability and violence, however in the past week gangs have taken advantage of a political crisis in the country to make a power grab.
On Sunday, the country’s transitional council fired interim Prime Minister Garry Conille, swiftly replacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.
Gangs also shot at three different planes of U.S. airlines – Spirit, JetBlue and American Airlines, landing and taking off in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
One flight attendant was injured, and bullets riddled the Spirit airplane.
The Federal Aviation Administration restricted U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days, though American Airlines announced it would pause flights until February.
The United Nations, also said it was temporarily suspending flights to Port-au-Prince, slashing access to humanitarian aid and personnel in the country.
It’s left Haiti once against isolated from much of the world and with only a trickle of the humanitarian assistance it needs as the Caribbean nation teeters on the brink of famine.
“We call for an end to the escalating violence, to allow for safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
Africanews/Hauwa M.
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