UN evacuates staff from Haiti as gangs deepen control over capital

By Elida Moreno and Harold Issac

United Nations evacuation flights are set to land in Panama City this week as the international organization removes staff from Haiti due to a sharp escalation in violence by armed gangs that have expanded their control over the capital Port-au-Prince.

Panama's foreign ministry said two humanitarian flights would arrive from Haiti in its capital on Tuesday and Wednesday, carrying 22 "international uniformed police advisers" and two U.N. officials, stopping over for a maximum of 72 hours.

U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Haiti Ulrika Richardson said in a press conference last week that the U.N. was starting to reduce slightly its footprint in the capital Port-au-Prince in response to escalating violence this month.

She said they would try to relocate staff to other departments in Haiti to better continue their work.

The chief of the U.N.'s Integrated Office in Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, said on X that as of Monday some 1,527 of 1,725 personnel remained in Haiti.

"We are not leaving the country," she said.

U.S. humanitarian organization Mercy Corps on Monday announced that it was relocating some staff to other regions outside Port-au-Prince, while Doctors without Borders has suspended operations in the capital, citing police threats.

Analysts estimate armed gangs - many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm - control 80% to 90% of the capital, and in recent weeks they have made further gains, attacking communes that previously escaped the worst of the violence.

In October 2023, the U.N. approved the deployment of an international force based on voluntary contributions to help police restore order, after Haiti requested support a year earlier, but the mission has so far only partially deployed and is deeply underfunded and under-manned.

Haiti's government has requested this be converted into a peacekeeping mission, but the proposal met resistance in the U.N. Security Council with opposition from veto powers China and Russia.

Over 40,000 people in Port-au-Prince have been displaced in just 10 days due to the violence, according to U.N. data, marking the largest mass displacement since January last year.