Many Americans and Canadians are among the dozens of foreigners who are stuck in Haiti, frantically attempting to escape the violent nation where anti-government groups are fighting the police and have already closed both of the nation’s international airports.
Their motivations for being in Haiti ranged from missionary and humanitarian activity to adoptions. They are currently confined to hotels and residences and are unable to flee by land, sea, or air as the chaos and the gangs’ demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry have paralyzed Haiti.
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“We are seriously trapped,” stated 65-year-old Ottawa, Canada native Richard Phillips, who has worked on projects in Haiti for the UN, USAID, and currently, a nonprofit organization in Haiti called Papyrus, on more than thirty occasions.
In an area noted for its maize, rice, peas, and beans, Phillips traveled to the southern coastal city of Les Cayes, Haiti, after landing in late February, to instruct farmers and other individuals in the use and maintenance of tractors, cultivators, planters, and other machinery.
“We are actually quite concerned about where this is going,” He admitted over a phone interview with a popular media house. “If the police force collapses, there’s going to be anarchy in the streets, and we might be here a month or more.”
The violence that started on February 29 has left over 15,000 people homeless and resulted in several fatalities from gang attacks.
The assaults persist despite Haiti’s government’s earlier this week extension of the state of emergency and midnight curfew to stem the bloodshed.
Gangs have assaulted Port-au-Prince’s main airport, which is still closed, set fire to police stations, and freed almost 4,000 prisoners from the country’s two largest prisons. The prime minister was unable to come home because of his trip to Kenya, where he advocated for the UN-backed deployment of a police force from the East African nation.
