PORT-AU-PRINCE — An ongoing escalation in gang attacks in Haiti’s capital is once more leading air carriers to suspend travel.
Spirit Airlines and the United Nations, each cited the deteriorating security situation as the reason why they put flights on hold on Friday.
A U.N. Humanitarian Air Service helicopter was struck by gunfire on Thursday in the latest incident in which armed gangs targeted a foreign entity in the country. The Haiti director for the World Food Program, though describing the incident as “a rare occurrence,” said the agency had suspended all flights on Friday as a result of the gangs targeting the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter.
“We’ve put all flights on hold only for today,” Waanja Kaaria, the program’s Haiti director, said Friday.
An investigation of the incident is currently under way, she added. When flights resume next week, an airplane will be used and have additional routes to get humanitarian assistance to areas of the country cut off by gangs’ control of roads, she said.
In addition to the cancellation of the U.N. helicopter flight, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways also did not operate their daily service out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport into Port-au-Prince on Friday.
“We suspended our service at Port-au-Prince… due to civil unrest,” a Spirit Airlines spokesperson told the Miami Herald, noting flights are canceled until at least Sunday. “The safety of our guests and team members is our top priority. We are notifying guests with affected travel plans about their options and will continue to closely monitor the situation.”
The Fort Lauderdale-based carrier’s service to Cap-Haïtien continues as scheduled. JetBlue Airways did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment. Though its daily service to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport flew on Friday, the Fort Lauderdale flight did not.
Kaaria said the food aid agency plans on using its planes to prevent any interruption in delivering humanitarian assistance to many of the 700,000 Haitians displaced throughout Haiti by the alarming gang violence. “It is now going to be deployed to do additional routes while the…. helicopter is being serviced,” she said.
The chopper was flying about 800 feet above the capital en route to the city of Les Cayes in southern Haiti on Thursday morning when it was hit by gunfire, according to a security report issued by an independent outfit Halo Solutions Firm S.A. The helicopter was carrying three crew members and 15 passengers, who were not injured when it landed safely back in Port-au-Prince.
The incident occurred about eight miles southwest of the capital, as the chopper flew over gang-controlled Martissant, the security report said, noting the aircraft dropped to a low altitude to avoid another incoming aircraft.
The chopper attack, first reported by the Herald, was the latest by armed gangs that have been unleashing a new wave of attacks in the capital and neighboring Artibonite Valley, even as Haitian police and a Kenya-led international force increase their offensive against armed groups. On Monday, gangs in the Tabarre neighborhood of the capital targeted two armored vehicles belonging to the U.S. Embassy. One vehicle was hit by gunfire that shattered its glass.
Earlier this year, gang attacks led to a nearly three-month shutdown of the domestic and international airports in the capital. Now, the gangs are expanding into new territories and are forcing thousands of more Haitians from their homes.
The deteriorating situation has increased tensions between Prime Minister Garry Conille and the country’s ruling Transitional Presidential Council. During a meeting on Friday, the council called for immediate changes in Conille’s government and demanded that at last eight ministers be replaced. Before asking for the changes, members of the council told Conille the situation in Haiti is catastrophic and complained that his government is not responding appropriately to the crisis.
Nearly half of Haiti’s population, about 5.4 million people, are in need of food assistance, while many others, including children, are also facing famine, the U.N. food program said Thursday. Despite the challenges, the agency is continuing to provide Haitians with hot meals, and helping with cash transfers for those who have been internally displaced, Kaaria said.
“The humanitarian needs are huge,” she said.
A request for $674 million from the United Nations to help Haiti remains underfunded. Only 42% of the amount has been raised, Kaaria told reporters in New York after the U.N.’s regular press briefing.
Lola Castro, the food program’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the agency needs $24 million to carry it from November to March, and that is without the additional needs anticipated from the continued deportations of Haitians from the neighboring Dominican Republic, the U.S. and elsewhere, or the Haitians who continue to be forced out of their homes by gang violence.
“The authorities are saying they need more support from the whole international community for security,” Castro said. “We at the World Food Program say while we increase security, we also cannot forget the humanitarian piece.”
By JACQUELINE CHARLES/Associated Press