Spirit Airlines flight hit by gunfire as gang violence shuts down Haiti’s main airport
Haiti’s international airport shut down on Monday after gangs opened fire at a commercial flight landing in Port-au-Prince, prompting some airlines to temporarily suspend operations as the country swore in a new interim prime minister who promised to restore peace.
The Spirit Airlines flight headed from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Port-Au-Prince was close to landing in Haiti’s capital when gangs shot at the plane, striking a flight attendant, who suffered minor injuries, according to the airline, the U.S. Embassy and flight tracking data. The flight was diverted and landed in the Dominican Republic.
Photos and videos obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes dotting the interior of a plane.
The shooting appeared to be part of what the U.S. Embassy called “gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince, which may include armed violence and disruptions to roads, ports and airports.”
Spirit, JetBlue and American Airlines said Monday they were cancelling flights to and from Haiti. Air Transat also said in a statement it has cancelled its Nov. 13 flights between Montreal and Port-au-Prince.
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti issued a travel warning, saying that the city’s airport was shut down due to “gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince, which may include armed violence and disruptions to roads, ports and airports.”
“The U.S. Embassy is aware of a temporary pause in operations at [Toussiant Louverture International Airport] as of Nov. 11,” the embassy’s statement said. “The security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous.”
In other parts of Haiti’s capital, firefights between gangs and police broke out. Rounds of gunfire echoed through the streets as heavily armed officers ducked behind walls and civilians ran in terror. In other upper-class areas, gangs set fire to homes. Schools closed as panic spread in a number of areas.
New PM sworn in Monday
The turmoil comes a day after a council meant to re-establish democratic order in the Caribbean country fired the interim prime minister, Garry Conille, replacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. The council has been marked by infighting and three members were recently accused of corruption.
As he was sworn in, Fils-Aimé said his top priorities were to restore peace to the crisis-stricken country and hold elections, which haven’t been held in Haiti since 2016.
“There is a lot to be done to bring back hope” he said before a room of suit-clad diplomats and security officials. “I’m deeply sorry for the people … that have been victimized, forced to leave everything they own.”
The country has seen weeks of political chaos, which observers warned could result in even more violence in a place where bloodshed has become the new normal. The country’s slate of gangs have long capitalized on political turmoil to make power grabs, shutting down airports, shipping ports and stirring chaos.
The United Nations estimates that gangs control 85 per of the capital of Port-au-Prince, while a UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police to quell gang violence struggles with a lack of funding and personnel, prompting calls for a UN peacekeeping mission.
Louis-Henri Mars, executive director of Lakou Lape, an organization working on peace building in violent areas of Haiti, said the political fighting has “allowed the gangs to have more freedom to attack more neighbourhoods in the city and expand their control of Port-au-Prince. Civilians, he fears, will suffer the consequences.
“There will be more lives lost, more internal displacement and more hunger in a country where half the population is on the brink of starvation,” he said.
The transitional council was established in April, tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and cabinet, with the hope that it would help quell violence, which exploded after Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021.
Transitional council plagued by infighting
The council was meant to pave the way to democratic elections. Gangs have capitalized on that power vacuum to make their own power grabs.
But the council has been plagued with politics and infighting, and had long been at odds with Conille.
Organizations, including the Organization of American States, tried and failed last week to mediate disagreements in an attempt to save the fragile transition.
On Monday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujaric urged all involved in Haiti’s democratic transition “to work constructively together,” although he stopped short of offering an opinion on the move to oust Conille.
“Overcoming their differences and putting the country first remains critical,” he said. “What is important is that Haitian political leaders put the interests of Haiti first and foremost.”
Published at Mon, 20 May 2024 18:58:11 +0000
Thousands march in far-right rally to mark Poland’s Independence Day
Tens of thousands of Poles including nationalist opposition chiefs walked through Warsaw on Monday in an annual Independence Day event held by the far right, some shooting red flares and carrying anti-EU, anti-Ukraine and white supremacist banners.
Thousands carried red-and-white Polish flags on Monday, while some chanted “White Europe of brotherly nations!” or “Stop the European Union!” or carried banners reading “Stop mass migration” or “Stop turning Poland into Ukraine.”
Some expressed their support for U.S. president-elect Donald Trump by waving his election campaign flag or the U.S. national flag.
Thousands of people attended an annual Polish far-right Independence Day demonstration in Warsaw. People in the crowds carried anti-European Union and white supremacist banners, while others praised the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.
“I wish such events would become available all across Europe, especially now after Trump’s victory,” a person in the crowd from Warsaw said.
Another participant, John, a 58-year-old from Arizona, said he brought a pro-Trump flag because “he is very popular in Central Europe and people love Trump here.”
Police said they detained 75 people and seized banned items from participants, including pyrotechnic materials, knives, telescopic batons and brass knuckles.
Friction between liberals, conservatives
The march has become a point of friction between Poland’s hard-right and conservatives on one hand and on the other, the liberal centre, in power since a general election last year ended eight years of nationalist rule.
The far-right Confederation party, whose politicians are among the event organizers, appears to have edged up since the election, now polling at around 12 per cent, mirroring gains in parts of Europe in an anti-migration backlash.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which governed Poland from 2015-2023 and is seeking a comeback, joined the march with other party members.
The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been in power since December, but its leftist and centre-right junior coalition members are struggling in opinion polls amid infighting over key campaign issues such as a return of abortion rights.
While both the nationalist PiS party and the Tusk coalition staunchly support Ukraine in its war against Russia, with the backing of the majority of Poles, some are frustrated by the influx of refugees from their eastern neighbour.
Warsaw authorities said some 90,000 people took part in the march, while organizers put the attendance at around 200,000.
Monday marked the 106th anniversary of Poland’s restored independence at the end of the First World War after more than a century of being partitioned and ruled by Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary. The date of Nov. 11 carries powerful weight for a nation where the trauma of losing national sovereignty endures.
President calls for sustained U.S. support
Polish President Andrzej Duda marked Independence Day with a call for sustained U.S. commitment to Europe’s security in view of Russian aggression in the region, and argued that Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders should be restored.
Duda, who has had friendly relations with Trump, said in a speech in Warsaw that Europe will continue to need U.S. protection.
“It is a pipe dream — as some people think — that Europe can ensure its own security today,” Duda said.
Weighing on the minds of many is the war across Poland’s border in Ukraine, and an expectation that Donald Trump’s return to the White House will bring a change in the security situation in the region.
Some fear Trump could end the U.S. commitment to NATO, or make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could result in a permanent loss of territory for Ukraine and encourage Russia to attack other nations. Others believe Trump could persuade Putin to stop the fighting.
Later at a news conference, Duda said he had spoken to Trump and that they would meet before the inauguration in January.
Published at Mon, 11 Nov 2024 20:33:35 +0000
