Haiti gangs try to seize key airport as violence surges in Caribbean nation

Heavily armed gangs have tried to seize control of Haiti's main international airport, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites in an explosion of violence that includes a mass escape from the Caribbean country's prisons.

The Toussaint Louverture International Airport was closed on Monday when the attack occurred, with no planes operating and no passengers on site. An armoured truck on the tarmac shooting at gangs to try and prevent them from entering airport grounds as scores of employees and other workers fled from whizzing bullets.

It is the biggest attack on the airport in Haiti's history and follows a state of emergency declared by the government following the escape of thousands of inmates from its largest prison amid a surge of gang violence that has disrupted the Caribbean nation for months.

The attack in airport occurred just hours after authorities in Haiti ordered a nighttime curfew following violence in which armed gang members overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.

A 72-hour state of emergency began on Sunday night.

The government said it would try to track down the escaped inmates, including from a penitentiary were the vast majority were in pre-trial detention, with some accused of slayings, kidnappings and other crimes.

"The police were ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders," said a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boivert, the acting prime minister.

Gangs already were estimated to control up to 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, the capital. They are increasingly coordinating their actions and choosing once unthinkable targets like the Central Bank.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry travelled abroad last week to try to salvage support for a United Nations-backed security force to help stablise Haiti in its conflict with the increasingly powerful crime groups.

The gangs say they want to oust Henry, who has led the crisis-wracked Caribbean nation since the assassination of president Jovenel Moise in 2021.

Haiti's National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the UN. They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned.

'Barbecue' vows to oust Henry

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm at the "rapidly deteriorating security situation" and underlined the need for more funding for the planned multinational police mission to be led by Kenya.

The White House said Monday it was watching the growing crisis in Haiti with "great concern," as authorities imposed a state of emergency after a mass prison break.

Late on Sunday, the Haitian government vowed its security forces would take whatever measures were needed to take back control.

But Haitian authorities are notoriously weak — kidnapping and other violent crime is rampant, and gangs are often better armed than the police.

Powerful gang leader Jimmy Cherisier, known by the nickname Barbecue, said in a video on social media that the armed groups were acting in concert "to get Prime Minister Ariel Henry to step down."

Cherisier has vowed to capture Haiti's police chief and government ministers and prevent Henry's return. The prime minister, a neurosurgeon, has shrugged off calls for him to resign and didn't comment when asked if he felt it was safe to come home from Kenya.

The UN Security Council in October approved an international police support mission to Haiti that Nairobi had agreed to lead, but a Kenyan court ruling has thrown its future into doubt.

On Friday, Henry signed an accord in Nairobi with Kenyan President William Ruto on deploying the force.

Haiti, the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years, and the 2021 presidential assassination plunged the country further into chaos.

No elections have taken place since 2016 and the presidency remains vacant.