PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday that it will ban U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days after gangs shot at two planes, and the United Nations will temporarily suspend flights to Port-au-Prince, limiting humanitarian aid. entering the country.

Bullets hit the Spirit Airlines plane as it was preparing to land in the nation’s capital on Monday, injuring a flight attendant and forcing the airport to close. Photos and videos obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes inside a plane. On Tuesday, JetBlue announced that its plane had also been shot at as it took off from Port-au-Prince on Monday.

The shootings were part of a wave of violence that broke out As the country plagued by gang violence swore in its new prime minister after a politically tumultuous process.

U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the agency documented 20 armed clashes and more roadblocks affecting humanitarian operations during Monday’s violence. Port-au-Prince’s airport will remain closed until Nov. 18, and Dujarric said the U.N. will divert flights to the country’s second airport in the northern, more peaceful city of Cap Haïtien.

Reduced access to the epicenter of violence, Port-au-Prince, is likely to be devastating, as gangs suffocating life in the capital have pushed Haiti to the brink of famine. Dujarric warned that cutting flights would mean “limiting the flow of humanitarian aid and humanitarian personnel to the country.”

A transfer of 20 trucks full of food and medical supplies in the south had already been postponed and an operation providing cash assistance to a thousand people in the Carrefour area, where violence broke out, had to be cancelled.

“We are doing everything possible to ensure the continuation of operations amid this challenging environment,” he said. “We call for an end to the escalation of violence to allow safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access.”

On Tuesday, life in much of Haiti’s capital was frozen after the wave of violence. Heavily armed police in armored vehicles in front of the airport checked passing public transport trucks.

Schools were closed, as were banks and government offices. The streets, where just a day earlier gangs and police were locked in a fierce gunfight, were eerily empty, with few on the road other than a motorcycle with a shot man clinging to the back.

The sounds of intense gunfire still echoed through the streets in the afternoon, a reminder that despite political maneuvering by Haiti’s elites and a strong push by the international community to restore peace, the country’s toxic gangs held firm. control in much of the Caribbean. nation.

Neither former interim Prime Minister Garry Conille nor the newly appointed Alix Didier Fils-Aimé commented on the violence.

But Luis Abinader, who as president of the neighboring Dominican Republic has cracked down on Haitian migration, called shooting at the plane terrorism.

“This was a terrorist act; The countries that are following and helping Haiti should declare these armed bands as terrorist groups,” Abinader said at a press conference.

The United Nations estimates that gangs control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. A UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police to quell gang violence is struggling with a lack of funding and personnel, prompting calls for a UN peacekeeping mission.

The violence comes after a transitional council, tasked with restoring democratic order in Haiti, which has not held elections since 2016, decided to fire Conille, who was often at odds with the council during his six months in office. . The council quickly swore in businessman Fils-Aimé as the new interim prime minister.

Conille originally called the move illegal, but on Tuesday acknowledged Fils-Aimé’s appointment in a post on social media platform X.

“(I) wish you success in fulfilling this mission. At this crucial time, unity and solidarity are essential for our country. Long live Haiti!” he wrote.

Fils-Aimé promised to work with international partners to restore peace and hold long-awaited elections, a promise also made by his predecessor.

But many Haitians, like Martha Jean-Pierre, 43, have little taste for the political struggle, which experts say only gives gangs more freedom to continue expanding their control.

Jean-Pierre was among those who braved the streets of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to sell bananas, carrots, cabbages and potatoes from a basket on his head. He said he had no choice: selling was the only way to feed his children.

“What good is a new prime minister if there is no security, if I cannot move freely and sell my products?” he said, pointing to his basket of vegetables. “This is my bank account. “My family depends on this.”

It was a frustration that worried international actors who have pushed for a peaceful resolution in Haiti, such as the UN and the US.

On Tuesday, the US State Department regretted that Conille and the council “were unable to move forward constructively” and called on Fils-Aimé and the council to provide a clear action plan outlining a joint vision for how reduce violence and pave the way. the way for elections to be held to “avoid further stagnation.”

“The acute and immediate needs of the Haitian people demand that the transitional government prioritize governance over the competing personal interests of political actors,” he wrote in a statement.

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Associated Press writer David Koenig contributed to this report from Dallas and Edith Lederer contributed from the United Nations.