Chaos reigns in Haiti, say Canadians stranded amid mounting violence

As gangs tighten their control and confusion reigns in Haiti, Canadians there say the crisis in the Caribbean nation has been years in the making, and all they can do now is hunker down amid the escalating violence.

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

Richard Phillips of Tisdale, Sask., says he arrived there amid relative peace on Feb. 25, four days before gangs carried out a series of attacks across the capital with the aim of blocking the return of Haiti's unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry, who was in Kenya at the time.

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

Phillips was supposed to fly out on March 3, the day Haiti's government declared a state of emergency, and the airport was closed, so he went to a nearby hotel. 

Hundreds of rounds went off right beside the hotel that day, and heavy gunfire has continued every night, Phillips told CBC News on Friday, with "gangs shooting at the police, then our hotel security, I think, shooting at the gangs a little bit, then the gangs shooting back."

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

This is his 37th trip to the country, which "has been 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 and businesses remained closed on Tuesday amid heavy gunfire between police and gang 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 vehicle raises the risk of being robbed, kidnapped or killed. Gang members even control the port and are looting containers, he said.

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

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 16 months 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 I or my daughter, who works with me, if we try to go to the factory, it could very easily turn into a kidnapping, so we just haven't been."