France has launched a military airlift to evacuate its “most vulnerable” citizens from Haiti. All commercial flights have been canceled as a result of the political and security chaos.
It is the Ministry of Defense in France that organizes the air transport. All French people still in Haiti are now being asked to contact their embassy in Port-au-Prince, which remains open despite the difficult situation.
This is according to the Ministry of Defense to the AFP news agency, according to Le Monde.
There are around 1,100 French people living in Haiti.
Armed militias, often referred to as “gangs” by the international press, now control large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. This is happening in the power vacuum that has arisen after Prime Minister Ariel Henry was pressured by the armed groups to resign earlier this month, and before a transitional government has been put in place.
On top of it all, according to the UN, 1.4 million Haitians are on the brink of famine. NTB reports that a further 4 million are dependent on food aid from outside.
Haiti was a French colony from 1637 to 1804, when former slaves and other poor people eventually defeated the French military after a rebellion that had lasted for about 13 years. The country became the first in Latin America and the Caribbean to free itself from its European colonial masters.
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