U.S. government officials have grown alarmed that the Haiti National Police could begin to crumble within hours — and that a long-planned multinational mission led by Kenya to provide reinforcements may not be enough to save the country from a complete descent into gang control.

Outgunned Haitian police have been battling a united front of gangs and losing key firefights. Now, a potential power void and a collapse of the Haitian government that had already faced a skeptical public risks undermining whatever morale is left among the police forces.

“The government could fall at any time,” a U.S. official told McClatchy, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss the government assessment. “If the HNP dissolves as an effective counterforce, if we see the airport or the presidential palace fall, it’s over.”

The Biden administration is moving urgently to expedite the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission, or MSS, that has been in the works for over a year and a half. Kenya has pledged to lead the mission and committed 1,000 police officers to the effort last fall.

But the force size of the Haiti National Police is “orders of magnitude less than required,” the U.S. official added. Adding 1,000 more boots on the ground — even if they are well-armed, well-trained, and deployed immediately — is unlikely to meet the demands of the crisis.

The Biden administration has ruled out contributing U.S. forces to the mission, with Pentagon leadership fiercely opposed to any deployment.

“The situation in Port-au-Prince remains extremely fragile as sporadic attacks have continued and all flights in and out of Haiti remain canceled,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday. “The Secretary-General reiterates the need for urgent action, including financing for the Multinational Security Support mission, to tackle the security needs of the people of Haiti.”

Dujarric said the United Nations has not been given a time frame for the arrival of the force.

Whenever the MSS does arrive, it remains unclear how Kenyan forces and leadership — who speak English and Swahili —will operate with a French and Creole-language Haitian force. And it has yet to be determined whether the Kenyan-led forces will take static positions at key sites, freeing Haitian police forces to battle gang members elsewhere, or if the Kenyans would fight alongside their Haitian partners.

It is not even clear whether the MSS, in partnership with the Haitian police, is large enough to reclaim any of the critical infrastructure already under gang control or neighborhoods across the capital that have led to more than 314,000 Haitians being displaced from their homes.

Though the total force size of the MSS has been quoted at roughly 2,500, neither the U.N. nor the United States has given a tally of how many police officers would be involved in the entire operation. And forces are not expected to deploy all at the same time. U.N. officials said last week that five countries, in addition to Kenya, have confirmed they will send personnel.

A State Department official told McClatchy the entire Biden administration had been “seized with this issue” on Wednesday, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken joining meetings with leadership at the White House and National Security Council.

“How much time do we have to do this? This was urgent two years ago. It’s incredibly urgent now,” a senior administration official told McClatchy and the Miami Herald. “The situation in Haiti is as critical a humanitarian and security crisis as we’re facing around the world.”

“Every day is too long,” the official added. “We have to move faster. That’s all I can say. We’ve got to move as quickly as possible.”

The state of Haiti’s U.S.-financed police force has long been a concern of the United Nations and other international partners. Some have expressed concern that the police may be less determined to keep fighting if they do not know who is in charge.

The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the rapidly deteriorating security crisis. Diplomats focused on the coordinated attacks that have forced U.N. officials to reposition aircraft, and consider an air bridge with the neighboring Dominican Republic should the situation further deteriorate. But the country’s political crisis also came up.

Biden administration officials and Caribbean leaders have been pushing for Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who recently finalized an agreement for the MSS, to cede power to a transitional government and resign.

Dujarric, the spokesman for Guterres, told reporters in New York on Wednesday that Haiti’s health infrastructure is on the brink of collapse.

“Port-au-Prince’s main public hospital has closed due to violence and the inability of staff to actually get to the hospital to support the people who need help,” he said. “The main hospitals receiving wounded civilians are overloaded, partly due to the number injured. There is an urgent need for blood products in the country.”

Push for political transition

White House and State Department spokespeople pushed back against a Herald report published Wednesday morning that revealed the administration had asked Haiti’s prime minister to resign as part of an “expedited” transition of power.

A U.S. government document obtained by the Herald and shared with Henry on Tuesday proposed, among other things, that he “step down as interim president and prime minister when the new governing structures have been established and the prime minister appointed or the MSS has deployed, whichever is first.”

Linda Thomas Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., acknowledged to reporters later in the morning that the administration had asked Henry to move forward with the formation of a transitional council — a mechanism that would involve the appointment of an interim prime minister to replace Henry, compelling his resignation.

“What we’ve asked the Haitian prime minister to do is move forward on a political process that will lead to the establishment of a presidential transitional council that will lead to elections,” Greenfield said. “We think that is urgent.”

The senior administration official confirmed to McClatchy that the State Department had proposed Henry “agree to step down” after a presidential transition was in place or the MSS was deployed. “We’re asking him to do that at a future time,” he said, while noting the administration is pressing for the MSS to deploy as soon as possible — perhaps in a matter of days.

Biden’s team has lost faith in Henry’s ability to lead after repeated, “pointed” conversations with the prime minister over his “unwillingness to cede real power” in a democratic transition, the official added. Asked whether the administration could envision a scenario in which Henry remained in authority, the official said, “I find that unlikely.”

The issue of Henry’s fate and the Herald report were raised in the U.N. Security Council meeting, where several countries expressed support for the prime minister — and concerns about the timing of the U.S. proposal and whether it might complicate the MSS deployment.

“We continue to deal with Mr. Henry as the prime minister of Haiti,” Dujarric said ahead of the three-hour meeting. “I think, as we said, it is important that everyone in Haiti – all stakeholders, everyone, political actors and others – work towards first of all restoring safety, and supporting Haitian institutions.”

The transition plan, requiring Henry’s ouster, had been presented by Caribbean leaders to Henry in Guyana last week. Henry rejected it at the time, before the Biden administration endorsed it.

The plan is similar to a proposal drawn up by opposition figures in Haiti and by three former Caribbean prime ministers, a group referred to as the Eminent Persons Group, charged with finding a solution to the political impasse.

Caribbean leaders had requested Henry’s presence in Jamaica on Wednesday, where he was expected to accept the proposal.

Henry would empower a High Transition Council to negotiate a transitional government under the plan, either with an expanded council or a “presidential college” representing political parties, private sector and civil society. At the same time, Caribbean and U.S. officials were holding talks with Haitians to find an agreement on the finer details of who would compose the new structure.

On Wednesday, Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who currently chairs the 15-member regional bloc known as CARICOM, acknowledged that efforts to find a consensus among key Haitian players still had not succeeded.

“We have been working on this around the clock for the last three days,” he said in a video. “Despite many, many meetings, we have not been able to reach any form of consensus between the government and the respective stakeholders, the opposition, the private sector, civil society and religious organizations.”

It remains unclear whether Henry will accept the proposal to resign. He had been working on a plan of his own, which involves staying on as prime minister, but enlarging the High Transition Council with a presidential panel to participate more in the decision-making.

For now, he remains in Puerto Rico, while commercial flights into his country remain suspended.

“We are going to continue to work with CARICOM — because I think it’s important to make clear that it’s not the United States acting alone with this regard, it’s the United States in consultation with partners in the region having these conversations,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday. “And what we are saying to the prime minister is that he needs to expedite the transition to empowered and inclusive governance, including the appointment of a transition council. So that’s what we’ll continue to discuss with him.”

Though Caribbean leaders last week called for Henry to step aside, they ultimately offered him a compromise in Guyana last week. They took note of his commitment to hold elections no later than August 2025, and said they would work with international partners, including the U.N., to do so. They also called for a consensus among Haitians.

That was last Wednesday. On Thursday, as Henry was arriving in Kenya to sign a deal for the MSS, gangs launched their attack.

CARICOM reverted to its old plan within a week — a move seen as a betrayal by those close to Henry. This time, the United States was on board.

US pushes Haiti PM to speed transition as gangs threaten civil war

-The United States said on Wednesday it was calling on Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to expedite a political transition as armed gangs seek his ouster amid a collapse in security and a humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean nation.

Henry, Haiti's unelected interim leader, has been in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico since Tuesday, apparently unable or unwilling to return to his strife-torn country after traveling to Kenya to rally security backing.

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. was not pushing for Henry to resign, but the U.S. wanted him to "expedite" a transition of political power.

The United States also said it is not helping Henry return home.

"We are not providing any assistance to help the prime minister return to Haiti," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said. Haitian gangs have warned that if Henry does not resign and countries continue to back him, that it could lead to civil war.

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, said that as late as Tuesday the U.S. had been seeking to have Henry make an "indefinite stopover" on its territory, a request it denied, prompting Henry's plane, which had already departed from New Jersey, to land in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.

Henry had traveled abroad to secure Kenya's proposed leadership of a long-delayed U.N.-ratified security mission he first requested in 2022 to help fight the increasingly powerful gangs, but countries have been slow to volunteer support.

There is no set deployment date and questions remain on who will staff it and how it will operate. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Wednesday that Washington hoped "that action will take place quickly."

Jimmy Cherizier, alias Barbeque, who leads a broad alliance of criminal gangs that have been fueling a dire humanitarian crisis in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, has signaled the gangs could fight the proposed mission as a united front and that the city's international airport is no longer secure.

Local rights group RNDDH said that at least nine police stations had been torched while 21 public buildings or shops had been looted, and over 4,600 prisoners escaped in the past week.

"If Ariel Henry doesn't step down, if the international community continues to support Ariel Henry, they will lead us directly into a civil war that will end in genocide," Cherizier said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He added that a broad alliance of gangs known as Viv Ansanm (Living Together) were fighting to annex strategic areas to allow them to oust Henry "as quickly as possible," and that his international backers would be to blame for Haitians who die.

NO CONSENSUS

Henry, who has been in power but unelected since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, has postponed promised elections, saying security must first be established for a free and fair vote.

Leaders from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have been meeting with Haitian government officials and opposition figures from the private, civil and religious sectors "around the clock" for three days, CARICOM Chair Irfaan Ali, who is also the president of Guyana, said in a video statement.

Ali said they had not been able to reach "any form of consensus" between key Haitian players and said it was essential to establish one as countries prepare to deploy troops in Haiti.

"They're all aware of the price of failure," Ali said. "The fact that more people have died in Haiti in the early part of this year than in Ukraine must give everyone serious pause."

A small number of protesters were outside a Puerto Rican hotel believed to be hosting Henry on Wednesday, calling for his resignation and for an external body to help administer elections.

"We ask that this great murderer resign," said Leonard Prophil, 51, a Haitian who has lived in Puerto Rico for 18 years and said his niece had been a victim of kidnapping in Haiti. "I don't know why they allowed him in Puerto Rico."

A U.N. spokesperson on Wednesday reiterated calls for donations to the security force and aid campaigns, saying the main hospitals were overloaded with wounded civilians and there was an urgent need for supplies of blood.

'BEYOND UNTENABLE'

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for the "urgent deployment, with no further delay" of the planned security force, saying there was no realistic alternative to protect lives: "This situation is beyond untenable for the people of Haiti."

According to the U.N., some 360,000 people are internally displaced while close to 1,200 have been killed and nearly 700 injured since the start of this year, with widespread reports of rape and torture, and access to basic supplies and services blocked.

"Each passing day brings new deprivations and horrors," the head of the U.N.'s children agency, Catherine Russell, said. "The Haitian population is caught in the crossfire."

An association of private hospitals in Haiti on Wednesday said that due to the conflict many hospitals had been victims of violent attacks and were facing severe shortages of medical essentials such as fuel and oxygen.

The Dominican Republic has upped security on its border with Haiti. Last year it deported tens of thousands of Haitian migrants and has said it will not allow Haitian refugee camps in its territory.

Responding to questions on refusing Henry's plane, Dominican authorities said while they planned to cooperate to help restore normalcy to Haiti, "it is imperative that any action taken does not compromise our national security."

Haitian news outlet Vant Bef reported that Guy Philippe, a former coup leader who was recently deported from the United States after serving a prison term on drug trafficking charges, was seeking to become leader.

He is backed by a rogue environmental brigade that has evolved into a paramilitary group known as BSAP. Local media reported the group is staffed with former soldiers who fought with Philippe in 2004 to oust ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The U.N. Security Council is holding a closed door meeting on Haiti on Wednesday.

Haiti PM's return still murky as gang conflict worsens

Haiti's prime minister landed in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, clearing uncertainty around his whereabouts since a trip to Kenya, but questions on how and when he will return to Haiti still linger as gangs back home push for his ouster.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled to Kenya last week to seal a deal to launch a U.N.-backed multinational security force to fight gangs in Haiti, which sparked violence and calls by a top gang leader for him to step down and stay away from the country.

Puerto Rico's governor's office confirmed Henry had landed in capital San Juan, after reports from local media said the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, had earlier not authorized his plane to land.

The Dominican Republic's government did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the reports.

Haiti's government declared a state of emergency on Sunday after inmates escaped in two major prison breaks, halting businesses, including airports, which have seen heavy gunfire take place near them in recent days.

The United Nations' immigration office said during the weekend that at least 15,000 people had been displaced due to violence.

"Armed gangs forced us to leave our homes. They destroyed our houses, and we're on the streets," said on Monday a man who gave his name as Nicolas and is living in a camp.

Rights group Plan International said many were fleeing the capital for Artibonite, traditionally Haiti's breadbasket farming region but whose residents are now facing food shortages as fighting spreads north.

Following an assessment of 500 testimonies, it found many families were skipping food for a day, over half of children were out of school, and a lack of money meant many felt they had no choice but to join gangs. Some 30% to 50% of gang members are estimated to be minors, the group said.

Country director Allassane Drabo said girls were at particular risk of forced marriage, with parents unable to meet basic needs. "Widespread violence is robbing too many of their childhood, with girls being forced to swap schoolbooks and bread for guns and wedding dresses," he said.

"I didn't have time to take any of my things, not even my underwear," said Jasmine, who declined to give her last name, at a shelter. "I didn't know what to do."

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, violent gangs have expanded control of their territory. Henry - who leads an unelected interim government - had pledged to step down by February, but delayed the process, citing lack of security.

'DRASTIC MEASURES'

In recent days, countries in the region have withdrawn embassy staff and advised their citizens to leave.

The Dominican Republic, which has had an often fractious relationship with its island neighbor, has sought to strengthen its border security and said it will not set up refugee camps for fleeing Haitians.

Jean Tholbert Alexis, an official from Henry's government, said on X on Wednesday that the Dominican decision not to allow the prime minister's plane to land was an unprecedented "diplomatic blunder."

Support from abroad has been scarce. The U.N last year authorized a security mission but a deployment date has not been set. As of late February, the U.N. said five nations had formally pledged troops, with less than $11 million deposited into a fund.

Humanitarian aid groups say they are chronically under-funded and workers have struggled to keep delivering services due to the violence.

Sinisa Vukovic, a senior conflict lecturer at Johns Hopkins University's school of advanced international studies, said moving the capital to Cap-Haitien, which has a port and international airport, could help coordinate humanitarian support and launch the international force.

"It would not be the first time that the government was temporarily relocated," he said, pointing to a disastrous 2010 earthquake. "Desperate times require drastic measures."

The U.N. estimates the conflict has driven some 300,000 from their homes and that gangs last year killed close to 5,000 people and kidnapped nearly 2,500 - sometimes using videos of rape and torture to extort costly ransoms from victims' friends and families.

Hoping to shore up public support, gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, known as Barbeque, said an alliance of gangs known as Viv Ansanm (Living Together) would soon release their hostages without ransom, local media reported on Tuesday.

Politicians seek new alliances to lead Haiti as gangs take over and premier tries to return home

Haitian politicians started pursuing new alliances Wednesday, seeking a coalition that could lead the country out of the gang violence that has fueled lawlessness, closed the main airport and prevented embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning home.

Haiti remained largely paralyzed, with schools and businesses still closed amid heavy gunfire blamed on the gangs that control an estimated 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where several bodies lay on empty streets. The country's two biggest prisons were also raided, resulting in the release of more than 4,000 inmates over the weekend.

Henry faces increasing pressure to resign, which would likely trigger a U.S.-supported transition to a new government.

One new political alliance involves former rebel leader Guy Philippe and ex-presidential candidate and senator Moïse Jean Charles, who told Radio Caraïbes on Wednesday that they signed a deal to form a three-person council to lead Haiti.

Philippe, a key figure in the 2004 rebellion that ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, returned to Haiti in November and has been calling for Henry’s resignation. He spent several years in prison in the U.S. after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was asked Wednesday whether the United States asked Henry to step down.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield replied that the U.S. has asked Henry to “move forward on a political process that will lead to the establishment of a presidential transitional council that will lead to elections.”

American officials believe it’s urgent for Henry to start "the process of bringing normalcy back to the people of Haiti,” she said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller echoed her remarks, saying the United States was not acting unilaterally but rather in consultation with partners in the region.

“And what we are saying to the prime minister is that he needs to expedite the transition to empowered and inclusive governance,” Miller said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the organization continued to deal with Henry as prime minister, adding that diplomats were “not in the business of encouraging him to resign.”

He said the U.N. chief is urging the government and all parties to set aside their differences and agree on “a common path towards the restoration of democratic institutions."

Dujarric described the situation in Port-au-Prince as “extremely fragile,” with sporadic attacks forcing the cancellation of all flights in and out of Haiti.

“Health infrastructure is on the brink of collapse,” he said, noting that wounded civilians were overwhelming hospitals and blood products were urgently needed.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said nearly 1,200 people have been killed in Haiti since the beginning of the year "because of this man-made violence.”

Caribbean leaders who have traveled to Haiti and previously met with Henry said Wednesday that a political solution is needed before the crisis worsens.

“In spite of many, many meetings, we have not been able to reach any form of consensus between the government, the private sector, civil society, religious organizations," said Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana, a country on South America's Atlantic coast.

The challenges are “compounded by the absence of key institutions" such as the presidency and parliament, as well as the violence and the lack of humanitarian aid, he said.

The prime minister has not made any public comments since gangs began attacking critical infrastructure late last week while he was in Kenya pushing for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country to help fight the surge in violence in the troubled Caribbean nation.

Before flying to Kenya, Henry was in Guyana for a summit held by a regional trade bloc known as Caricom, where Haiti was high on the agenda.

Meanwhile, a Caribbean official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that leaders of Caricom spoke with Henry late Tuesday and presented several alternatives to end Haiti’s deepening crisis, including his resignation, which he refused to do. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details about the talks.

Henry landed Tuesday in Puerto Rico after he was not allowed to land in the Dominican Republic, where officials closed the airspace around Haiti. Héctor Porcella, director of the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation, told reporters the plane did not have a required flight plan.

The Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Wednesday that U.S. and Haitian officials informally contacted it to inquire about the possibility of Henry’s plane making an “indefinite stop” in the Dominican Republic, adding that the prime minister was in New York at the time.

The government said it twice told foreign officials that such a move would require a defined flight plan.

“It is essential to note that the Dominican Republic maintains its willingness to continue cooperating with the international community to facilitate Haiti’s return to normalcy. However, it is imperative that any action taken does not compromise our national security,” the foreign affairs office said.

Dickon Mitchell, prime minister of the eastern Caribbean island of Grenada, told the AP that regional leaders spoke late Tuesday with Henry, who did not indicate anything except "that he is trying to get back into Haiti.” Mitchell did not provide details.

Henry was appointed prime minister with the backing of the international community shortly after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

As he tried to return to Haiti on Wednesday, heavy gunfire echoed throughout Port-au-Prince as Haitians feared additional attacks led by powerful gang leaders.

It was not clear when the country’s international airport would reopen.

U.S. Urges Haiti’s Prime Minister to Transfer Power as Gangs Threaten ‘Genocide’

Simon Maina.

The United States is formally asking Haiti’s prime minister to step aside and allow for a political transition of power as the havoc being wreaked in the capital by an alliance of heavily armed rebel gangs threatens to escalate into full-on civil war.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, 74, remained stranded abroad on Wednesday after his plane was diverted in the midst of an attempt to return home from a diplomatic mission to Kenya a day prior. According to a report in the Miami Herald, he backtracked and landed in Puerto Rico after the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, refused him permission to land.

Mid-flight, U.S. officials called and urged him to step aside, the Herald reported. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, confirmed only that the government had asked Henry to “move forward on a political process that will lead to the establishment of a presidential transitional council that will lead to elections,” according to The Washington Post.

“We think that it’s urgent that he moves forward in that direction and start the process of bringing normalcy back to the people of Haiti,” she added.

Henry, a neurosurgeon who ascended to become the nation’s de facto head of state after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, was supposed to step down last month. He has thus far resisted calls to form a transitional government, one person familiar with the diplomatic proceedings told The Wall Street Journal.

Jimmy Chérizier, the crime lord known as “Barbecue” who heads a powerful gang alliance, told reporters on Tuesday that the coordinated violence that erupted last week while Henry was out of the country would only worsen should he remain in office.

“If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide,” the former police officer said at a press conference. “Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us. It’s out of the question for a small group of rich people living in big hotels to decide the fate of people living in working-class neighborhoods.”

Six days ago, after Henry announced that long-promised elections wouldn’t occur until at least next year, Chérizier and other gang leaders came together with the explicit mandate of ousting Henry. They laid siege to Port-au-Prince over the weekend, attacking police stations and attempting to violently wrest control of the city’s international airport. On Sunday, Haitian officials declared a 72-hour state of emergency after the alliance launched an assault on two major jails, loosing thousands of inmates out onto the streets.

Violent skirmishes between rebels and police continued through Tuesday evening, but a police administrator told the Journal that the airport’s perimeter had been secured, though the facility itself remained closed and under guard. The Journal reported the capital was “calm” on Wednesday, though resources remained scarce and medical facilities overwhelmed.

“We can’t hold on much longer,” Jean Philippe Lerbourg, medical director of the university Hospital La Paix, told the Post on Wednesday. “We’re running low on blood, and we’re short-staffed because many can’t reach the hospital.”

Henry has been silent and out of sight since Friday, when he was photographed in Nairobi signing a formal agreement with the Kenyan government to proceed with its offer to spearhead a United Nations-backed multinational police force to restore law and order in Haiti. The agreement’s status on Wednesday was unclear, with the U.N. Security Council set to hold an emergency meeting on the matter on Wednesday.

A U.S. State Department spokesman denied that they were actively pushing Henry to step down. “We are not calling on him or pushing for him to resign, but we are urging him to expedite the transition,” Matthew Miller said.

But Ronald Sanders, the ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the U.S., told the Post on Tuesday that the State Department had sent Henry a message that included language that the embattled politician could use while announcing his resignation. A Haitian politician who participated in recent discussions with Haitian leaders and the Caribbean Community bloc, which held its own emergency meeting on Tuesday, told the newspaper that Henry’s resignation was “inevitable.”