The United States announced on Monday that it has closed its embassy in Haiti and confined its employees within the diplomatic compound due to intense gunfire near Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, beset by criminal gangs.
The US State Department issued an alert on X, reporting “significant gunfire in the Tabarre area near the US Embassy” and instructed US Government officials to suspend all official travel outside the diplomatic premises, urging people to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located close to Port-au-Prince airport in the north-east of the Haitian capital.
A local resident contacted by French news agency AFP confirmed hearing heavy gunfire since mid-morning, describing clashes between police and gang members who have dominated parts of the country and its capital since 2024.
Amid this violence, former Haitian senator Nenel Cassy was arrested on Saturday at a restaurant in Pétion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, as confirmed by the Haitian National Police (PNH).
The former senator had been wanted since February for charges including conspiracy against state security, financing criminal organisations, complicity in murder, and criminal association, and has been placed in police custody, according to the PNH.
At least 3,141 people were killed in Haiti between January 1 and June 30, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in July.
In this context, nine people, including an Irish missionary responsible for an orphanage hospital and a three-year-old disabled child, were kidnapped on Sunday night from their healthcare facility.
Humanitarian organisation Nos Petits Frères et Soeurs, which oversees the Sainte-Hélène orphanage, and another Christian association, La Fondation Saint-Luc, announced in a statement that they are “closing all network institutions” in response to this “intolerable violence” and will keep them closed “until the unconditional release of the kidnapped individuals.”
No demands or ransom requests have been made to the authorities.
