A charter flight carrying dozens of US citizens fleeing spiraling gang violence in Haiti landed on Sunday in Miami, state department officials said.
More than 30 US citizens were on the government-chartered flight, officials said in a statement. It arrived in Miami’s international airport after the US embassy in Port-au-Prince earlier this month urged US citizens to leave “as soon as possible” as chaos grips Haiti.
Avlot Quessa, who lives in Boston, traveled from the center of Haiti to board the charter flight after going to the country in February for what was supposed to be a week-long trip to visit his mother.
“It’s just terrible,” Quessa told the Miami Herald of the nearby Caribbean nation. “The suffering, you can only imagine.
“Haiti is my homeland and it’s very stressful to see the homeland going through this act of violence, destruction … and they are our neighbors.”
Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed following gang attacks that have raged through the nation in recent weeks, pushing many people to the brink of famine. Government and aid agencies this weekend reported looting of aid supplies as the situation worsened.
The state department announced on Saturday that it would offer limited charter flights for US citizens from the less chaotic northern city of Cap-Haïtien.
Officials said they could not provide ground transportation to Cap-Haïtien and that US citizens should consider the charter flights “only if you think you can reach Cap-Haïtien airport safely”.
“We encourage US citizens still in Haiti who seek to depart to contact the department of state using the crisis intake form on our website if they have not already done so,” the agency said.
People taking the US government-coordinated flights must sign a promissory bill agreeing to reimburse the government.
Another passenger on Sunday’s flight, Marie Lucie St Fleur, 69, of West Palm Beach, said she felt most at home in Haiti, and it pained her to see what her homeland was enduring.
“I don’t feel well at all,” she said. “I would like to live in my country and I can’t.”
The state department said government officials in Miami were helping the newly arrived evacuees to determine their next steps.
The US military last week flew in additional forces to bolster security at the US embassy, which is in a neighborhood largely controlled by gangs.
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