US civilian flights to Haiti banned for one month

Photo: Clarens Siffroy Agence France-Presse On Monday, a plane from an American company came under fire while landing in Port-au-Prince.

Nicolas Revise – Agence France-Presse respectively in Washington and Port-au-Prince

Published at 14:49 Updated at 21:31

• Amériques

The United States on Tuesday banned all civilian flights to Haiti for a month after three planes came under fire the day before, and ordered authorities, including the new prime minister, to resolve the crises plaguing the poor Caribbean country.

Haiti has been living for months under violence from armed gangs that control 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince, which was rocked on Tuesday by heavy gunfire in some neighborhoods and threats of attacks that closed schools and Toussaint-Louverture airport.

Airport employees told AFP that their management had asked them not to return before November 18.

On Monday, gunfire hit an Airbus from the American low-cost airline Spirit Airlines just before landing in Port-au-Prince. The plane was diverted to the neighboring Dominican Republic.

What could have been a major air disaster left one crew member slightly injured and bullet holes were visible on the fuselage and in the cabin of the plane, according to videos posted on social media.

On Tuesday evening, American Airlines and JetBlue revealed that two of their planes that left Port-au-Prince on Monday for Miami and New York respectively also each had bullet holes.

They have suspended their connections between the two countries for weeks and the American federal aviation regulator (FAA) has, for its part, banned “U.S. civil aviation operations in the territory and airspace of Haiti below 10,000 feet for a period of 30 days.”

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Summoned to act by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT), head of the Haitian executive in the absence of a president since 2021, condemned “this cowardly crime which threatens the security and sovereignty of Haiti (and) aims to isolate our country on the international scene.”

American pressure

In fact, the incident occurred almost at the time of the inauguration on Monday of the new Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, a businessman who replaces Garry Conille, who stayed only five months.

Appointed by the CPT, he “committed” to “restoring security” and promised to “work tirelessly […] for cohesion” politics.

This is precisely what the United States has asked for.

“The immediate needs of the Haitian people require that the transitional government prioritize governance over competing political interests,” the State Department warned.

Washington, historically heavily involved in the repeated crises affecting Haiti, including militarily, has nevertheless “welcomed the commitment” of the authorities to “strengthen security, governance and which paves the way for free and fair elections.”

The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, through his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, has also “reiterated his call for all Haitian stakeholders to work together constructively.”

But he specified that “all UN flights have been suspended, obviously limiting the influx of humanitarian aid and personnel.”

International Force

Haiti has suffered from chronic political instability for decades and gang violence for months. These armed groups, accused of numerous murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings for ransom, united earlier this year to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

The Transitional Presidential Council was then created to restore security and organize elections. The last ones were in 2016.

But the crises are worsening, despite a multinational mission to support the police.

Supported by the UN and the United States, this mission led by Kenya deployed this summer with just over 400 men.

The UN mission in Haiti recorded 1,233 murders between July and September, 45% of which were attributable to law enforcement and 47% to gangs, in this country of 12 million people.

Barbaric acts sometimes target children, with victims mutilated with machetes, stoned, decapitated, burned alive or buried alive. These horrors have driven more than 700,000 people, half of them children, to flee their homes to seek refuge elsewhere in the country, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).