UN and Spirit Airlines temporarily suspend flights in Haiti’s capital as gang attacks increase

An ongoing one escalation of gang attacks in Haiti’s capital, it is once again a major airline that has suspended travel. On Friday, both Spirit Airlines and the United Nations cited the deteriorating security situation as the reason why they were suspending flights.

On Thursday, a UN Humanitarian Air Service helicopter was hit by gunfire in the latest incident involving armed gangs targeting a foreign entity in the country. The Haitian director of the World Food Program described the incident as “a rare event” but said the agency had suspended all flights on Friday as a result of the mobs targeting the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter.

“Just for today we have suspended all flights,” Waanja Kaaria, Haiti director of the program, said Friday.

The incident is currently under investigation, she added. When flights resume next week, a plane will be used and have additional routes to get humanitarian aid to areas of the country cut off by gang control of the roads, she said.

In addition to the cancellation of the UN helicopter flight, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways also did not operate their daily service from Fort Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince on Friday.

“We have suspended our service in Port-au-Prince… due to civil unrest,” a spokesperson for Spirit Airlines told the Miami Herald. “The safety of our guests and team members is our top priority. We are informing guests with affected travel plans of their options and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

The Fort Lauderdale-based airline’s service to Cap-Haïtien will continue as planned. JetBlue Airways did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment. Although the daily service to New York flew on Friday, the flight to Fort Lauderdale did not fly.

Kaaria said the food aid agency plans to use its aircraft to avoid any disruption in delivering humanitarian aid to many of the 700,000 Haitians displaced by alarming gang violence across Haiti. “It will now be deployed to operate additional routes while the … helicopter is being maintained,” she said.

The helicopter was flying about 800 feet above the capital on Thursday morning en route to the city of Les Cayes in southern Haiti when it was struck by gunfire, according to a safety report from an independent organization Halo Solutions Firm SA. The helicopter had three aircraft on board. crew and 15 passengers, who were not injured when it landed safely back in Port-au-Prince.

The incident occurred about twelve kilometers southwest of the capital, when the helicopter flew over gang-controlled Martissant, the safety report said, noting that the plane descended to a low altitude to avoid another incoming plane.

The helicopter attack, first reported by the Herald, was the latest from armed gangs that have unleashed a new wave of attacks in the capital and the neighboring Artibonite Valley, even as Haitian police and a Kenyan-led international force continue their offensive against armed performing groups. . On Monday, gangs attacked two armored vehicles belonging to the US embassy in the capital’s Tabarre district. One vehicle was struck by gunfire, shattering glass.

Earlier this year, gang attacks led to a nearly three-month closure of the capital’s domestic and international airports. Now the gangs are expanding into new areas, driving thousands more Haitians from their homes.

The deteriorating situation has increased tensions between Prime Minister Garry Conille and the country’s ruling Transitional Presidential Council. At a meeting between on Friday, the council called for immediate changes in Conille’s government and demanded that at least eight ministers be replaced. Before calling for the changes, council members told Conille that the situation in Haiti is catastrophic and complained that his government is not responding adequately to the crisis.

Nearly half of Haiti’s population, some 5.4 million people, are in need of food aid, while many others, including children, are also facing famine, the UN food program said Thursday. Despite the challenges, the agency continues to provide Haitians with hot meals and helps with cash transfers for those internally displaced, Kaaria said.

“The humanitarian needs are enormous,” she said.

A United Nations request for $674 million to help Haiti remains underfunded. Only 42% of the amount has been raised, Kaaria told reporters in New York after the UN’s regular press conference.

Lola Castro, the regional director of the food program for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the agency needs $24 million to run it from November to March, and that’s without the additional needs expected from the ongoing deportations of Haitians from the neighboring Dominican Republic, the US and elsewhere, or the Haitians continuing to be driven from their homes by gang violence.

“Authorities say they need more support from the entire international community for security,” Castro said. “We at the World Food Program say that while we are increasing security, we must not forget the humanitarian aspect.”