France flies 240 people out of Haiti – including Swiss nationals
Published: Wednesday, Mar 27th 2024, 20:50
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In view of the desolate security situation in Haiti, France has flown 170 of its citizens and 70 other Europeans - including staff from the Swiss SDC office - and other nationals out of the Caribbean state.
In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Verteidigungsministerium wurde den am meisten gefährdeten Personen die Ausreise ermöglicht, teilte das Außenministerium in Paris am Mittwoch mit.
The evacuees were flown by French army helicopters to a French ship that would take them to Fort-de-France, the capital of the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Commercial flights to Haiti had been suspended due to the situation there.
Total SDC staff outside the country
According to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in Bern, three members of the foreign staff of the Humanitarian Office of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) were able to leave Haiti on Sunday with French support. These people will be temporarily relocated to Santo Domingo in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
Damit konnten alle Schweizer Mitarbeiter des DEZA-Büros das Land verlassen, wie ein EDA-Sprecher gegenüber der Nachrichtenagentur Keystone-SDA sagte.
Around 70 Swiss in Haiti
The FDFA is aware of around seventy Swiss nationals in Haiti. Some of them have expressed the wish to leave the country. The FDFA and the Swiss embassy in Santo Domingo are "supporting them as far as possible", said the spokesperson.
The already extremely tense security and humanitarian situation in Haiti had deteriorated further since the end of February. Gang violence prevented interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning from a trip abroad - he announced his resignation.
Pläne für eine neue Übergangsregierung, Vorbereitungen für die ersten Wahlen seit 2016 und eine multinationale Mission zur Unterstützung der haitianischen Polizei sind noch nicht umgesetzt worden. Schon vor der jüngsten Eskalation hatten verschiedene bewaffnete Gruppen nach UN-Angaben insgesamt rund 80 Prozent der Hauptstadt Port-au-Prince unter ihrer Kontrolle.
France's embassy in the French-speaking former colony of Haiti remains open, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. Around two weeks ago, the German ambassador and all foreign employees of the EU representation left Haiti. The US military flew out non-essential US embassy personnel.
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