Emergency Summit In Jamaica To Address Spiraling Haiti Crisis

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published March 11, 2024 | 09:54 PM

US, Canadian, French and Caribbean envoys were meeting Monday in Jamaica to address the spiraling instability in Haiti, where gang violence has crippled the capital and forced foreign diplomats to evacuate over the weekend.

Kingston, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Mar, 2024) US, Canadian, French and Caribbean envoys were meeting Monday in Jamaica to address the spiraling instability in Haiti, where gang violence has crippled the capital and forced foreign diplomats to evacuate over the weekend.

Armed groups, which already control much of Port-au-Prince as well as roads leading to the rest of the country, have unleashed havoc in recent days as they try to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

In power since the 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise, Henry had been visiting Kenya, in search of support for a UN-backed security support mission, when the latest burst of violence broke out.

Unable to return to Haiti last week, he instead landed in the US territory of Puerto Rico, where he remained on Monday, according to a US official.

The CARICOM group of Caribbean nations has summoned its leaders as well as envoys from the United States, France, Canada and the United Nations to a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica to discuss the crisis.

The United States was sending its top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who departed Washington for Kingston early Monday.

He was to discuss a proposal "developed in partnership with CARICOM and Haitian stakeholders to expedite a political transition in Haiti," the State Department said.

Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the current CARICOM chair, said that talks to bring "stability and normalcy" to Haiti were ongoing, but that Haitian stakeholders "are not where they need to be."

"Time is not on their side in agreeing to the way forward," Ali warned in a video on social media.

AFP reporters saw bodies lying in Port-au-Prince streets and some 362,000 Haitians have been displaced from their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration.