US, Germany, EU Embassies Evacuate Haiti as Violence Spirals

One evacuation operation carrying staffers from the German and European missions was forced to turn down requests to help evacuate others on Sunday, a source involved told CNN, as some in the diplomatic community in Port-au-Prince worry about where gang attacks could turn next.

The US military said on Sunday it conducted an operation to airlift non-essential personnel from the US embassy and to bolster the security of its mission in the capital. Port-au-Prince has seen a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks on law enforcement and state institutions that threaten to topple the government and have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The US State Department arranged for the evacuation overnight due to “heightened gang violence in the neighborhood near US embassy compounds and near the airport,” the embassy said in a post on X early Sunday.

The German and European Union missions in Port-au-Prince have also evacuated diplomatic staff, including their ambassadors, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. 

The decision to leave was motivated by the escalation of violence seen in Port-au-Prince in recent days, with the source saying credible intelligence had emerged suggesting gangs — which have so far been attacking Haitian government institutions and police — might move toward Petionville, a hilly well-to-do area where several luxury hotels and embassies are located.

The escape of several thousand prisoners from Haiti’s National Penitentiary — which prompted the Haitian government to declare a state of emergency last Sunday — was also a factor, they said.