Paris [France], March 28: France has flown 170 of its citizens and 70 other Europeans and other nationals out of Haiti as the security situation there deteriorates.
The most vulnerable people were being taken out of the country, the Foreign Ministry in Paris announced on Wednesday.
The evacuees were flown by French army helicopters to a ship, which will take them to Fort-de-France, the capital of the French Caribbean island of Martinique.
Commercial flights to Haiti have been cancelled due to the situation there.
The already extremely tense security and humanitarian situation in Haiti has worsened since the end of February. Gang violence prevented interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning from a trip abroad and he subsequently announced his resignation.
Plans for a new interim government, preparations for the first elections since 2016 and a multinational mission to support the Haitian police have not yet been materialized.
Even before the latest unrest, various armed groups controlled about 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to UN figures.
France's embassy in the French-speaking former colony remains open.
About a fortnight ago, the German ambassador and all foreign employees of the EU representation left Haiti. The US military has already flown out non-essential US embassy personnel.
Meanwhile, Canada has launched a programme to get its citizens out of Haiti, as the Caribbean nation grapples with a surge in gang violence, political instability and a widening humanitarian crisis.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Monday that her government would assist "the most vulnerable Canadians" in leaving Haiti for the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
This includes Canadian citizens with medical conditions or those who have children, Joly said.
"At present, the Dominican Republic has strict [eligibility] requirements for all those entering the country. Only Canadian citizens who have a valid Canadian passport will be eligible for this assisted departure," she told reporters.
Joly said 18 Canadian citizens had left Haiti via the programme on Monday.
Canada is home to nearly 180,000 people of Haitian descent, and Haitian Canadians had called on the government to do more to help their relatives stuck in Haiti amid a weeks-long surge in deadly violence.
In early March, armed gangs launched attacks on police stations, prisons and other state institutions across the capital of Port-au-Prince and demanded the resignation of the unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Source: Qatar Tribune
