US Starts evacuating embassy staff from Haiti as gang violence escalates.

 

US is evacuating embassy staff from Haiti

 The US is rapidly airlifting non-essential embassy staff from Haiti as gang violence escalates.  However, security has been beefed up in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

 In a statement yesterday, the US Southern Command said, as violence escalated in the capital Port-au-Prince and across the Caribbean country, the US military conducted an operation from Saturday to Sunday night to airlift American personnel from the US Embassy in Haiti.

Officials also said that additional security has been deployed as part of the operation.

 In a statement to CBS News on Sunday morning, the US Southern Command said, at the request of the State Department, the US military conducted an operation to increase security at the US embassy in Port-au-Prince and that non-essential embassy personnel were being evacuated.

 In a statement, the US military's Southern Command said that personnel who are not needed at the embassy at this time are being flown back.

 But the embassy will remain open.  In a post on the embassy's social media account X, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to evacuate additional personnel due to increased violence in areas near the embassy premises and airport.