PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday that it will ban U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days after gangs fired three planes and the United Nations temporarily suspended flights to Port-au-Prince, limiting the entry of humanitarian aid into the country.

Bullets hit a Spirit Airlines plane on Monday as it was preparing to land in the nation’s capital, 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 and American Airlines announced that post-flight inspections found their planes had also been shot at on Monday while taking off from Port-au-Prince. American suspended flights to the capital until February 12.

The shootings were part of a wave of violence that erupted as the gang violence-plagued country 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 have suffocated life in the capital. brought 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 convoy of 20 trucks full of food and medical supplies in the south had already been postponed and an operation providing cash assistance to 1,000 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.

The United Nations estimates that gangs control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. A mission supported by the UN led by Kenya Police to quell gang violence struggles with lack of funds and personnel, prompting calls for a UN peacekeeping mission.

President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti, was the island’s first leader to condemn the violence and described the shooting as a “terrorist act.”

On Tuesday, a transitional council established in April to restore democratic order in Haiti also condemned the violence.

“This cowardly crime, which threatens the sovereignty and security of Haiti, aims to isolate our country on the international stage. “The perpetrators of these heinous acts will be pursued and brought to justice,” the council wrote in a statement.

The council has received harsh criticism from many in Haiti who maintain that its political struggles and corruption accusations against three members created political instability, allowing gangs to violently seize power like that seen on Monday.

That came to a head over the weekend, when he fired the former Acting Prime Minister Garry Conille – long disagreed with the advice. They replaced him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who took office on Monday surrounded by suit-clad officials and diplomats as gangs terrorized the capital around him.

Neither Fils-Aimé nor Conille have commented on the wave of violence.

Conille originally called the council’s 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 like the UN and the United States who have pushed for a peaceful resolution in Haiti.

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.

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