CNN
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Intruders broke into a major port terminal in Haiti Thursday as violence in the country escalated after the government extended its state of emergency.
The Haitian government decreed the state of emergency would be extended to April 3 in the country’s West Region and the capital Port-au-Prince. A curfew has been extended to March 10.
It comes as Port-au-Prince’s Caribbean Port Services (CPS) terminal, a major player in Haiti’s food import supply chain, was broken into around 8 a.m., two security sources told CNN. The intruders headed to the terminal’s gated warehouse area that houses many containers, the sources said.
The source said the unrest at the port continues.
Video of the port on Thursday showed hundreds of people on the streets around the facility and what appeared to be dozens of people breaking into the gated warehouse. CPS did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
Exclusive satellite imagery from Airbus seen by CNN showed people massing outside of the area and crowds moving in through an opening to the street.
Pléiades Neo/Airbus
A satellite image shows the aftermath of the port breach in Haiti.
One Airbus satellite image shows a significant amount of material littering the area of the container port terminal. Another image, taken Wednesday, shows a Haitian National Police MRAP – mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle – on a major roadway.
A security source told CNN that the MRAP was positioned there to prevent G9 gang coalition leader Jimmy Cherizier from expanding attacks and particularly from moving toward the airport road.
Pléiades Neo/Airbus
A gang blockade can be seen along a major street.
Elsewhere in Port-au-Prince, satellite images show blockades – some constructed by local residents and others by gangs – along major streets, closing off entire neighborhoods.
Port-au-Prince has been gripped by a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks on law enforcement and state institutions in what gang leader Cherizier has described as an attempt to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government.
Armed groups have burned down police stations and released thousands of inmates from two prisons, and Cherizier has warned of “a civil war that will end in genocide” if the prime minister does not step down, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The chaos has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes in the past few days, adding to the more than 300,000 already displaced by gang violence.
It is also affecting the distribution of essential supplies by aid organizations. The World Food Programme suspended its maritime transport services in Port-au-Prince from distributing aid across Haiti due to the instability.
Odelyn Joseph/AP
A law enforcement officer at a police station set on fire by armed gangs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 5, 2024.
Two dozen trucks of aid, filled with food, medical supplies, and equipment, are stuck at the port in Port-au-Prince, the United Nations Office for the…
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