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Heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport on Monday, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites.
It comes as Haiti is currently experiencing an explosion of violence.
The Toussaint Louverture International Airport was closed when the attack occurred, with no planes operating and no passengers on site.
The attack was the biggest in Haiti's history on an airport.
It occurred just hours after authorities in Haiti ordered a nighttime curfew after armed gang members overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.
All but 98 of the 3,798 inmates being held at the National Penitentiary escaped. Meanwhile, at the Croix-des-Bouquets prison, 1,033 escaped.
A second Port-au-Prince prison containing around 1,400 inmates also was overrun.
In response, the government ordered a 72-hour state of emergency. The government said it would try to track down the escaped inmates, with some accused of murder, kidnappings and other crimes.
Gangs already are estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, the capital. They are increasingly coordinating their actions and choosing once unthinkable targets like the Central Bank.
Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the UN. They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned.
At least nine people had been killed since Thursday — four of them police officers — as gangs stepped up coordinated attacks on state institutions in Port-au-Prince, including the international airport and national soccer stadium.
Authorities are seriously concerned about the safety of judges, prosecutors, victims, attorneys and others following the mass prison escapes.
Following the raid at the penitentiary, three bodies with gunshot wounds lay at the prison entrance on Sunday.
In another neighbourhood, the bloodied corpses of two men with their hands tied behind their backs lay face down as residents walked past roadblocks set up with burning tires.
The US Embassy has halted all official travel to the country. On Sunday night, it urged all American citizens to depart as soon as possible.
The Biden administration, which has refused to commit troops to any multinational force for Haiti while offering money and logistical support, said it was monitoring the rapidly deteriorating security situation with grave concern.
Calls for PM to resign
The surge in attacks follows violent protests that turned deadlier in recent days as the prime minister went to Kenya seeking to move ahead on the proposed UN-backed security mission to be led by that East African country.
Henry took over as prime minister following Moise's assassination and has postponed plans to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which haven’t happened in almost a decade.
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Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as "Barbecue" who now runs a gang federation, has claimed responsibility for the surge in attacks. He said the goal is to capture Haiti’s police chief and government ministers and prevent Henry’s return.
The prime minister has shrugged off calls for him to resign and didn’t comment when asked if he felt it was safe to come home.
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Concern is growing for the safety and freedom of journalists across Europe.
Especially in countries like Belarus and Russia, members of the media have been illegally spied on, hit by abusive lawsuits and detained, though there are also issues in the West.
That's according to this year’s annual report from the Council of Europe released on Tuesday.
Despite a significant drop in the number of journalists killed in Europe in 2023 compared to the year before, threats faced by the media in the Council of Europe's 46 member states become more diverse, making them more tricky for reporters to navigate.
The report, titled “Press Freedom in Europe: Time to Turn the Tide”, assessed major issues undermining press freedom in Europe.
These include threats: intimidation, detention, restrictive legislation, abusive lawsuits and attacks on public service media, among others.
It found that of the total 285 alerts on serious threats and attacks on the freedom of the media in the continent, nearly 15% came from Russia alone. The country keeps persecuting journalists who criticised the Kremlin line, including those who have fled overseas.
According to the report’s authors, the threat of mafia-type violence currently “hangs like dark clouds above journalists on the crime beat,” especially those researching the drug trade.
Threats in Europe: the numbers
The kind of threats faced by journalists across Europe range from physical attacks, death, detention, illegal surveillance, media bashing by politicians and effective muzzles imposed by the government.
A big threat to journalists’ physical safety in 2023 was Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Last year, two journalists - Bohdan Bitik and Arman Soldin - were killed while reporting on the war in Ukraine, while several others were injured. Both died during Russian strikes.
Another member of the media, security guard Pal Kola, was killed in 2023 in an attack on the Top Channel TV station in Albania. Kola’s was the only case of a media worker killed outside of a war zone.
There were a total of 41 alerts denouncing attacks on the physical safety and integrity of journalists in 2023: 11 came from Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine; four from France; four from Turkey; three from Italy; and three from Serbia.
Detention remains a common punishment for journalists critical of their country’s leaders, especially in Russia and Belarus.
As of the end of 2023, 59 journalists were jailed in countries across Europe, including in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. 65 were detained in Russia and Belarus.
At least 18 journalists were detained last year in Turkey, while Poland and the UK detained one each (respectively Pablo Gonzales and Julian Assange).
These were the countries that reported alerts of threats on journalists in 2023: Belarus (42); Russian Federation (39); Turkey (27); Ukraine (24); France (19); Italy (16); Poland (12); Serbia (11); Azerbaijan (10); Greece (9); Albania (6); Spain (6); United Kingdom (5); Slovak Republic (5); Georgia (5); Bosnia and Herzegovina (5); Bulgaria (5); Armenia (4); Croatia (4); Germany (4); Netherlands (4); Republic of Moldova (4); Belgium (3); Czechia (3); Finland (3); Austria (2); Hungary (2); Denmark (1); Ireland (1); Latvia (1); Malta (1); Portugal (1); Romania (1).
There were already 27 alerts on threats to journalists in Europe since the beginning of the year, most of which in Ukraine (7), Turkey (6), the Russian Federation (4) and Portugal (3).
Impunity for killing journalists
The Council of Europe’s report also highlights that by the end of 2023, there were still 30 cases of impunity for the murders of 49 journalists and media workers.
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The cases remain open to this day despite the assassinations having occurred long before.
According to the Council of Europe’s report, impunity for the murders of journalists - where investigators and prosecutors failed to find the culprits and secure a conviction - is still the norm.
In November 2023, a former Russian police officer serving a 20-year prison sentence for his role in the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Vladimir Putin, was pardoned by presidential decree after completing a six-month military contract fighting in Ukraine.
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Children in northern Gaza are dying of starvation, according to the WHO.
In a post on X, World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported "grim findings" after the WHO visited two hospitals in northern Gaza.
"Severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed," he wrote on the social media platform on Monday.
At Kamal Adwan Hospital - the only paediatrics hospital in the north of Gaza - Ghebreyesus said a "lack of food" had resulted in the deaths of 10 children.
The situation at Al-Awda Hospital - the second facility visited by the WHO team - was "particularly appalling," he continued, with one of the buildings destroyed.
He said it was the UN agency's first visit to the area since early October when the Israel Hamas war broke out.
Ghebreyesus's announcement follows recent reports that six children died from dehydration and malnutrition at the two hospitals, which have gone out of service owing to a lack of fuel to run their generators.
"We appeal to Israel to ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered safely, and regularly," he wrote on X.
"Civilians, especially children, and health staff need scaled-up help immediately. But the key medicine all these patients need is peace. Ceasefire."
Israeli soldiers drive a tank on the border with the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. Ariel Schalit/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.
An estimated 300,000 people are living in northern Gaza, with little food or clean water.
Israel's military offensive in Gaza first targeted the north - where experts at the City University of New York and Oregon State University say 80% of buildings have been destroyed.
The area has been almost completely cut off from aid since the start of the war on 7 October, with Israeli forces routinely accused of blocking supplies.
Amid what it called a "collapse of civil order", the UN Organisation for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) paused aid delivered to northern Gaza in February.
With the UN warning of "pockets of famine" in January, increasing numbers of desperate people have tried to get aid from passing trucks.
Israeli soldiers fired at crowds massing near an aid convoy in central Gaza City on Thursday, triggering a stampede that - along with the gunfire - killed scores.
The United Nations food agency also paused aid deliveries to northern Gaza on 20 February, citing Israeli gunfire as well as “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” in the area.
UNRWA has been permitted by Israeli authorities to deliver aid to northern Gaza for more than a month, while humanitarian organisations have increasingly lamenting at the minimal amount of aid allowed into the enclave.
A senior UN aid official has warned that at least 576,000 people across the Gaza Strip - one-quarter of the population - face catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
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One in six children under the age of two in the north are estimated to be suffering from acute malnutrition.
Writing on X, WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus said the WHO had "managed to deliver 9,500 litres of fuel to each hospital and some essential medical supplies."
"This is a fraction of the urgent lifesaving needs," he continued.