Haiti: armed men attack the National Palace in Port-au-Prince

He Haiti's National Palace is being attacked this Monday by armed men and several employees are trapped, leaving at least five police officers injured, one of them seriously.

At this time, intense shootings continue in the area and harsh clashes in the main public square of Port-au-Prince, Champs de Mars, very close to the National Palace, between gang members and the Police.

The members of the armed gangs, belonging to the 'Live Together' coalition, led by the powerful Jimmy Cherizier, alias 'Barbecue', They managed to set fire to an armored vehicle of the National Police in the vicinity of the National Palace.

At the end of February and beginning of last March, Armed groups intensified their attacks against institutions, companies and private properties, All this in the absence of the Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who is still out of the country and whose departure from power the gangs are demanding.

In those days, massacres and attacks continued, such as the assaults on March 2 on the country's two main prisons, the National Penitentiary and Croix-des-Bouquets, which allowed the escape of some 3,600 prisoners, many of them members and leaders of armed gangs.

The surroundings of the international airport were also not spared from the violence (there are still no flights) nor were the Presidential Palace or the Ministry of the Interior, which attempted to be attacked or set on fire by the gang members.

An example of the violence in Haiti are the figures provided last week by the UN, which described the situation as a “cataclysm”: more than 1,500 deaths at the hands of armed groups in the first three months of the year.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Haiti describes as “terrible” the levels of violence at the hands of armed gangs, with its consequent effects in all areas: more than 5.5 million people need humanitarian aid to survive, the displaced exceed 362,000, more than 50% of the population has problems feeding themselves and the health system is on the verge of collapse.

Schools are not left out either and they have not opened their doors in the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince for a month now.

The crisis and insecurity generate concern everywhere and, thus, Pope Francis referred on Sunday, in his Easter message, to Haiti, a country for which he asked that “the violence that lacerates and bloody cease as soon as possible and that it can progress.” on the path of democracy and fraternity”.

The UN, alarmed by the situation, will hold a debate this Tuesday in the Human Rights Council and, the following day, the Organization of American States (OAS) will discuss, in a regular meeting, the draft resolution 'Support for the transition democracy in Haiti'.

EFE