The United States and other diplomatic missions have begun evacuating personnel from Haiti, as gang violence in the Caribbean nation's capital Port-au-Prince continues to spiral, abc7 reports.
One evacuation operation carrying staffers from the German and European missions was forced to turn down requests to help evacuate others on Sunday, a source involved told CNN, as some in the diplomatic community in Port-au-Prince worry about where gang attacks could turn next.
The US military said on Sunday it conducted an operation to airlift non-essential personnel from the US embassy and to bolster the security of its mission in the capital. Port-au-Prince has seen a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks on law enforcement and state institutions that threatens to topple the government and which has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
The US State Department arranged for the evacuation overnight due to "heightened gang violence in the neighborhood near US embassy compounds and near the airport," the embassy said in a post on X early Sunday.
US Southern Command said the move was consistent with "standard practice for Embassy security augmentation worldwide." No Haitians were on board the military aircraft, it added.
"Our Embassy remains focused on advancing US government efforts to support the Haitian people," US Southern Command said in a statement Sunday, adding that the evacuation helps to "allow our Embassy mission operations to continue."
President Joe Biden approved the operation, according to a National Security Council spokesperson, and remains "deeply concerned" about the situation.
