The Unit­ed States says while rou­tine do­mes­tic com­mer­cial air trav­el has re­sumed be­tween sev­er­al air­ports in Haiti, US cit­i­zens should on­ly seek to leave the French-speak­ing Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) coun­try “when they feel it is safe to do so”.

In a state­ment, the US Em­bassy in Haiti said that Amer­i­cans should al­so seek to leave the coun­try by com­mer­cial or oth­er pri­vate­ly avail­able trans­porta­tion and that they “should mon­i­tor lo­cal news and check reg­u­lar­ly with trav­el agen­cies and com­mer­cial trans­porta­tion providers’ of­fices and web­pages to find de­par­ture op­tions that suit their needs.”

“We are aware of US cit­i­zens trav­el­ling to Cap Hai­tien via he­li­copter from sites oth­er than com­mer­cial air­ports; those flights in­volve po­ten­tial risks cit­i­zens should as­sess be­fore fly­ing,” the Em­bassy said.

Crim­i­nal gangs in Haiti seek­ing to over­throw the gov­ern­ment, have been tar­get­ing the var­i­ous air­ports in the coun­try. The Em­bassy said that US gov­ern­ment per­son­nel are not au­tho­rised to trav­el on com­mer­cial flights in­to or out of Port-au-Prince be­cause of Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Ad­min­is­tra­tion re­stric­tions and po­ten­tial risks to air traf­fic.

“The US gov­ern­ment does not en­dorse pri­vate nor com­mer­cial car­ri­ers,” the Em­bassy said, urg­ing Amer­i­cans not to trav­el to the trou­bled coun­try.

“If you are a US cit­i­zen in Haiti, de­part Haiti as soon as pos­si­ble by com­mer­cial or oth­er pri­vate­ly avail­able trans­porta­tion op­tions,” the state­ment ad­vised. “Avoid crowds (and) mon­i­tor lo­cal me­dia for up­dates and avoid ar­eas where vi­o­lence, demon­stra­tions, or dis­rup­tions are re­port­ed to be hap­pen­ing.”

The Em­bassy is al­so urg­ing Amer­i­cans in Haiti to keep a low pro­file and that they should be “pre­pared to shel­ter in place for an ex­tend­ed time pe­ri­od”, and avoid be­ing out af­ter dark.

Ear­li­er this week, the Unit­ed Na­tions said that vi­o­lence against chil­dren in war zones surged to “un­prece­dent­ed lev­els” in 2024, with the re­port doc­u­ment­ing 41,370 grave vi­o­la­tions—the high­est since glob­al mon­i­tor­ing be­gan near­ly 30 years ago—in sev­er­al coun­tries, in­clud­ing Haiti.

The UN al­so re­port­ed that pow­er­ful gangs that con­trol much of Haiti are in­creas­ing­ly ruth­less and bet­ter armed de­spite a weapons em­bar­go

“With the ab­sence of an ef­fec­tive gov­ern­ment re­sponse,” the re­port said, “gangs con­tin­ue to have free rein to con­duct at­tacks with im­puni­ty and ex­pand their ter­ri­to­r­i­al con­trol.” —PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC)