US forces boost security at embassy in Haiti

The U.S. has sent in forces to tighten security and extract personnel at the embassy in Haiti as gang violence plunges the Caribbean island into a humanitarian crisis.

U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) said in a statement that troops airlifted personnel into and out of the embassy and “conducted an operation to augment the security of the U.S. Embassy” in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

“This airlift of personnel into and out of the embassy is consistent with our standard practice for embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” Southcom said in the statement.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti said it remains open despite the soaring violence, though it confirmed some embassy personnel have been evacuated.

With violence soaring in Haiti, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling Monday to Kingston, Jamaica, to meet with Caribbean officials on how to tamp down the fighting that has upended life across the island and has raised grave concerns for the region.

Blinken is expected to discuss the deployment of a multinational security force to Haiti to help quell the violence, something officials have long been pushing for as a way to crack down on the gangs.

Late last year, the United Nations approved the deployment of Kenyan forces to Haiti, but the country’s high court ruled that would be unconstitutional.

Haiti is in a state of emergency as gangs sweep across the Caribbean nation with little in the way to stop them. Gangs control swaths of territory in Haiti, including the neighborhood around the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update last week that more than 360,000 people have been displaced by the violence.

The health system is also nearing collapse on the island and millions of people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the U.N. said.

The fighting has also stranded Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is unable to return home from Puerto Rico.

Henry is facing calls to resign or form a new transitional council to govern the country, something Blinken is also expected to discuss at the meeting in Jamaica.