Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was forced to flee the northern city of Gona？ves where he and other government officials were attending a New Year’s Day Mass to mark the country’s independence from France, after a shootout that left one person dead and that his office cast as an attempt on his life.

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       Henry’s office said Monday that “bandits and terrorists” put soldiers behind walls to shoot at his convoy and also threatened the bishop by surrounding the Cathedral of St. Charles Borromeo where the Mass was taking place. It said that arrest warrants had been issued and called the situation “intolerable.”

       In a tweet, Henry thanked the bishop of Gona？ves and other church officials for doing their duty “despite the tense situation that reigned in the city.” Le Nouvelliste, a Haitian newspaper, reported that one person was killed and at least two people were wounded in the gunfire, which prevented Henry from delivering a planned speech.

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       The shootout underscores the threat posed by violent gangs that control large swaths of the beleaguered Caribbean nation and that have been responsible for a surge in mass abductions for ransom targeting Haitians of all walks of life, including buses full of passengers and preachers delivering sermons.

       Abductions by the busload: Haitians are being held hostage by a surge in kidnappings

       The gangs have tightened their grip amid a security and political vacuum that was worsened by the still-unsolved assassination in July of Haitian President Jovenel Mo？se, which has left the country’s interim government weak and divided.

       Police, including some who analysts say have been co-opted by gangs, have struggled to respond.

       Henry has vowed to crack down on the gangs that have in the past year blocked aid convoys bound for victims of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in August, as well as fuel trucks and fuel distribution terminals, causing harmful fuel shortages that have hit hospitals and triggered nationwide strikes that have paralyzed the country.

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       The gangs have also targeted foreigners, including a group of 17 Christian missionaries from an Ohio-based charity. The 16 Americans and one Canadian with Christian Aid Missionaries said they escaped captivity last month after being abducted by the powerful 400 Mawozo gang while they were returning from a visit to an orphanage outside Port-au-Prince. Haitian officials have said that the missionaries were released. The gang demanded a ransom of $1 million per person.

       Local media reported that gangs had warned Henry against attending the New Year’s Day Mass and that there were doubts about whether he would attend. It was the first time a leading political official had attended the Mass in four years, Le Nouvelliste reported.

       “Today, our enemies, the enemies of the Haitian people, are the terrorists who do not hesitate to use violence to kill people with all their might, or to kidnap, take away their freedom, to rape them,” Henry said in a tweet in Haitian Creole on Sunday. “And do everything for money.”

       Who is 400 Mawozo, the Haitian gang accused of kidnapping American missionaries?

       The Biden administration held a virtual meeting with 14 countries, several international organizations and the Haitian foreign minister last month in an effort to respond to the deepening security, political and economic challenges facing the country and the risks they pose to regional stability.

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       Brian Nichols, the assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs, told reporters that all parties agreed that the Haitian National Police need additional support. He said that the United States has provided more than $350 million to the police since 2010 and recently pledged an additional $15 million, including $12 million earmarked to bolster its efforts to respond to gang violence.

       “The reality is that whatever investments we provide specifically for the Haitian National Police need to be accompanied by gains in governance, transparency and anti-corruption efforts,” Nichols told reporters after the meeting.

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