By Michael Rios, Richard Roth, Sahar Akbarzai and Chris Lau, CNN
(CNN) — Two police stations near Haiti’s National Palace were attacked by armed individuals Friday night, as gang violence in the Caribbean nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince continued to spiral.
The Haitian capital has been gripped by a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks on law enforcement and state institutions in what gang leader Jimmy Cherizier has described as an attempt to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government.
Henry has had difficulty returning to the country since leaving for Kenya last week to sign an agreement for a Kenyan-led multinational mission to restore security back home.
He is now believed to be in Puerto Rico, two sources with knowledge of Henry’s movements in the Caribbean island told CNN, after the Dominican Republic refused to let his flight land.
The violence comes just a day after intruders broke into Port-au-Prince’s Caribbean Port Services (CPS) terminal, a major player in Haiti’s food import supply chain.
But the UN said Friday the police had been “able to push back coordinated gang attacks on key infrastructures, including the airport.”
The Haitian government has decreed a state of emergency will run until April 3 in the country’s West Region and the capital Port-au-Prince and a curfew will remain in force until March 10.
The chaos in Haiti has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in the past few days, adding to the more than 300,000 already displaced by gang violence.
The head of Doctors without Borders in Haiti said she is concerned about the civilian displacement, pointing to the lack of necessities.
Hospitals have been targeted by gangs. Only one public hospital is still operating in Port-au-Prince’s metropolitan area, according to an official from the country’s Civil Protection.
Pierre Espérance, Executive Director of NGO the Haitian Human Rights Defense Network, called Haiti’s situation “chaotic” with “no end in sight” and said the country had “completely collapsed.”
Canada said a protest lasting 90 minutes broke out in front of its embassy on Thursday, with a burning tire being thrown over the outside gate, while the US has said it’s looking into “contingency options” at its embassy.
Haiti is a member state, but it is unclear if Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry will be at the meeting.
CNN has reached out to the Haitian prime minister’s office for comment.
Jim Rogers, Rafy Rivera, Michael Conte and Abel Alvarado contributed to the reporting.
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