Inside Haiti: A lucky few escape, while millions face gang rule, hunger and chaos
CNN - In a city silenced by gangs, everyone notices the thrum of a helicopter beating overhead in the night – a brief sign that someone very lucky has been able to leave Port-au-Prince.
CNN was able to land in the Haitian capital by helicopter on Friday after days of on-again, off-again plans that required detailed security arrangements and multiple layers of diplomatic approval. Since our previous visit to Haiti last month, the situation has deteriorated sharply. Beleaguered Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his decision to step aside, but it is not clear who will fill the void or when. A promised transitional government has yet to materialize, and plans for a Kenyan-led stabilisation force are in limbo.
Ordinary people leave their homes only rarely in Port-au-Prince these days, where daily battles between police and gangs send plumes of smoke into the air, gunshots echoing through quiet streets. Boulevards that would ordinarily be packed with cars and vendors are empty, the city’s painted “tap tap” taxis rarely full.
There are few places left to go. All roads leading out of the city are blocked by gangs, as is access to the port, and the city’s international airport has been shuttered, its walls pocked with bullet holes. Nothing is coming in either; the city’s grocery stores are running out of food. Gas stations are out of fuel. Hospitals are short on blood.
On Friday evening, gunshots could be heard ringing in the city’s hills. Lower down, a police operation was also in course in the territory of notorious gang leader and former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbeque.
The United Nations is working to create an air bridge between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo, in the neighboring Dominican Republic, that would convey vital supplies to the city. But for now, the only thing coming into Port-au-Prince are the private evacuation helicopters – a bitter reminder of the gross inequality that has plagued Haiti for decades, where most people live on less than $4 per day.
Hundreds of people are putting their names on lists to flee Port-au-Prince by air, several pilots told CNN – a small class of wealthy foreigners and diplomats with the resources and network to contemplate chartering a private flight where a single seat currently can cost over $10,000.
The helicopters can be heard regularly in the evening and early morning, residents in Port-au-Prince say, with an audible difference between the small private helicopters arriving from the Dominican Republic and larger military helicopters believed to be used by some diplomatic missions, including the United States.
No amount of money or planning can erase the danger of flying through a war zone, however, and pilots say they are increasingly wary of taking on evacuation flights. From one day to the next, it is never clear when the next flight will be possible.
Two pilots told CNN they had heard shots fired while they were performing an evacuation. “When you hear the ping, ping, ping of bullets going by, you don’t want to do it anymore,” one said.
“As far as I’m concerned, the entire city is run by gangs,” said another, showing CNN a map of the dense urban sprawl of Port-au-Prince, where he says he is unable to predict where fire might come from.
Eighty percent of Port-au-Prince is currently controlled by gangs, according to UN estimates. Haiti was thrown into crisis at the start of March, as gangs called for the resignation of Prime Minister Henry and his government. For the first time, according to security sources, rival gangs and coalitions began to wreak coordinated havoc, sharing territory for tactical advances.