Haiti extends state of emergency for a month amid escalating violence

Haiti’s government said Thursday it would extend the state of emergency in the Ouest department, where the capital Port-au-Prince is located, for another month and the nighttime curfew for four days as violence continues.

A declaration in a special edition of the Caribbean country’s official gazette, Le Moniteur, signed by the Council of Ministers, said the state of emergency would be extended until April 3, with a nighttime curfew until March 11. The state of emergency bans all public protests and allows security forces to use “all legal means” to enforce the curfew and arrest those who break it, the government said. Emergency services, security forces and accredited journalists will be exempt from the curfew. The decision comes after a state of emergency and renewable 72-hour curfew imposed on Sunday expired on Wednesday.

Violence in Haiti escalated on Feb. 29 when Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced during the Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit in Guyana that he would hold elections by August 2025 at the latest, angering gangs who want him to leave power earlier. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Henry has been the highest authority in the country, without checks and balances and without a legal framework, while at the same time violent gangs have gained more and more power in Haiti, and especially in Port-au-Prince.