Embassies evacuate staff as Haiti reels under violence

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — With Haiti's capital spiraling deeper into gang violence, members of several diplomatic missions, including staff from the United States and the German ambassador, began leaving Port-au-Prince on Sunday.

Beleaguered residents were scrambling for safety following the latest spasm of unrest, with a United Nations group warning of a "city under siege" after armed attackers targeted the presidential palace and police headquarters.

Criminal 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.

Since Feb 29, Haitian armed groups have launched a wave of attacks in the capital, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

The US military said early on Sunday it had "conducted an operation to augment the security of the US embassy at Port-au-Prince, allow our embassy mission operations to continue, and enable nonessential personnel to depart".

A US State Department spokesperson said the embassy "remains open, on limited operations" with reduced personnel.

The German foreign ministry meanwhile said its ambassador joined other European Union representatives in leaving for the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

The European Union has evacuated all its diplomatic personnel from Haiti because of "the dramatic deterioration of the security situation", the European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said on Monday.

CARICOM, an alliance of Caribbean nations, has summoned envoys from the US, France, Canada and the UN to a meeting in Jamaica on Monday to discuss the violence and ways to provide assistance to Haiti.

Jean-Marie Theodat, a geographer at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris, said in the long term, Haiti needs to mobilize more young people, particularly through conscription, to strengthen the police and armed forces.

Agencies - Xinhua