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A surge in gang violence over the past two weeks has led international aid organizations to rethink their staff levels in Haiti.
Nov. 25, 2024, 11:14 a.m. ET
A United Nations helicopter has been buzzing nonstop for days over Haiti, as the U.N. starts to draw down its personnel in Port-au-Prince, evacuating 14 people at a time in chopper rides.
Many embassies and international aid organizations — including Doctors Without Borders, which runs some of the few functioning hospitals in Port-au-Prince — are suspending operations in Haiti, where gangs have stormed into more parts of the capital, sowing panic among humanitarian groups.
Port-au-Prince’s international airport remains closed to commercial traffic after gangs shot at U.S. airliners this month.
Many Haitians are particularly alarmed and dismayed by the departure of personnel from the United Nations, the international agency people are relying on to help resolve a crippling gang crisis that has forced many civilians to flee their homes.
“Every Haitian thinks that we are being abandoned by the whole world,” said Dr. Wesner Junior Jacotin, a critical care physician in Haiti. “If I was in a foreign country and I believed at any moment my life could be at risk, I would leave too.”
But, he wondered: “What about the ones who can’t leave?
Nations around the world are looking to the U.N. as the only viable solution for a troubled country that has been unraveling since its last president was assassinated more than three years ago.
