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.
En cooperación con el Ministerio de Defensa, se permitió salir del país a las personas más vulnerables, anunció el miércoles el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores en París.
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.
Esto significó que todo el personal suizo de la oficina de la COSUDE pudo abandonar el país, según declaró un portavoz del DFAE a la agencia de noticias Keystone-SDA.
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.
Los planes para un nuevo gobierno provisional, los preparativos para las primeras elecciones desde 2016 y una misión multinacional de apoyo a la policía haitiana aún no se han puesto en marcha. Incluso antes de la última escalada, varios grupos armados tenían bajo su control en total alrededor del 80% de la capital, Puerto Príncipe, según cifras de la ONU.
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.
©Keystone/SDA
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