Chaos reigns in Haiti, say Canadians stranded amid mounting violence

As gangs tighten their control and confusion reigns inHaiti, Canadians there say thecrisis in the Caribbean nation has been years in the making, and all theycan do now is hunker down amid the escalatingviolence.

Theysay it's gotten so bad in the past week thatit's impossible to leave the country by road, sea or air and even venturing outside is too dangerous.

RichardPhillipsof Tisdale, Sask., says he arrived there amid relativepeace onFeb. 25, four days before gangs carried out a series of attacks across the capital with the aim of blockingthe return of Haiti's unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry, who was inKenya at the time.

"It'sabsolute chaos down here right now," he said.

Phillipswas supposed to fly out on March 3, the day Haiti's government declared a state of emergency, and the airportwas closed, so hewentto a nearby hotel.

Hundreds of rounds went off right beside the hotelthatday, and heavygunfire has continued every night, Phillipstold CBCNews on Friday, with "gangs shooting at the police, then our hotel security, I think, shooting at the gangs a little bit, then thegangs shooting back."

WATCH | Exit routes blocked:

Canadian stuck in Haiti says gangs have closed every exit route

5 months ago

Duration 5:46

Richard Phillips is a Canadian agricultural consultant who regularly travels to Haiti to train workers on the use of farm equipment. He says this is the first time criminal gangs have shut down traffic to the Dominican Republic at the ports and the international airport.

On Tuesday, Phillipssaid he has since moved to the outskirts of Port-au-Princeto a fellow Canadian's home, where "we feel fairly secure."

This is his37th trip to the country, which"hasbeen through some tough times," he noted.

"But this is new. What's we're experiencing now is a new level of stress in terms of that airport being closed and no exits out of the country. This is new for me too."

Schools andbusinesses remainedclosed on Tuesday amid heavy gunfire between police andgang members, who control an estimated 80 per cent of the capital.

Phillips says all the major roads out of the city are controlled by gangs, so venturing out even in a vehicleraises the risk of beingrobbed, kidnapped or killed. Gang memberseven control the port and are looting containers, he said.

Global Affairs has advised Canadians to "shelter in place."

WATCH | Unprecedented violence:

Long-time Canadian resident says level of violence in Haiti unprecedented

5 months ago

Duration 0:01

Tom Adamson, a Canadian who has lived in Haiti for decades, says 'this is the worst it has ever been' in the Caribbean country as far as gang violence goes.

Tom Adamson, a Canadian-born businessman who has lived and worked in Haiti for 45 years, operates a mattress factory in Port-au-Prince but has not been able to visit it for 16months because he would have to go through "some very dangerous areas."

"Our trucks have managed to get through by paying a tariff to the gangs every time they drive through, but if Ior my daughter, who works with me, if we try togo to the factory, it could very easily turn into a kidnapping, so we just haven't been."

"I think this is the worst it has ever been," Adamson told CBC News on Tuesday. "There has been a deterioration over the past five or six years,with the gangs getting stronger and stronger."

Quebecer David Rocheleauwent to Haiti for work at the end of February and is also unable to leave. He's sheltering at a friend's house in Petion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince.

"There's no way out and there's no foreseeable way out in the future," he said, adding that he and his friend are hoping their food doesn't run out.

WATCH | Haiti's PM resigns amid steep rise in gang violence:

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign

5 months ago

Duration 2:06

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry says he will resign once the country forms a provisional council to look for an interim prime minister. A Kenya-led international force is also on hold until that process takes effect.

The country's gang violence worsened in July 2021, when President Jovenel Mose was assassinated in his home. The government later appointed Henry as prime minister.

Henry, who said Monday he will resign, was inKenya last month to push for the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force.

A UN-backed deal for such a mission has languished for months, blocked by internal legal issues. Haiti had requested an international force, as well as economic aid.

Catherine ButeauofMontreal, who has friends and family in Haiti, says its citizens have previously expressed their worriesand frustrations, to no avail.

They "have been sounding the alarm for the past three years and even more, taking to the streets, travelling,going to hearings, giving testimonies about the violence that they've been experiencing ... and they have just fallen, I would say, on deaf ears," she told CBC News Network on Monday.

She says her parents are now unable to leave the house, including her mother, who's a doctor and had been going to the hospital every day to work.

Everyone in the capital is staying vigilant, checking the news and checking withneighbours tomake sure it's safe to go out, she says.

"Even if you do go out, there's this saying among Haitians ... to say that 'This could be your last day,'" she said

Buteausays if she doesn't hear from her family for a few hours she "immediately jumps to the worst-case scenario."