AUTHORITIES in Haiti continued to work throughout the weekend to retake some of the streets in the country’s capital following gang attacks on at least three police stations.

Guards from the National Palace accompanied by an armoured truck tried to set up a security perimeter around one of the three stations after police fought off a series of gang attacks.

The unrelenting attacks in Port au Prince have paralysed the country for more than a week and left it with dwindling supplies of basic goods. 

Haitian officials extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew on Thursday as gangs continued to attack key state institutions.

Caribbean leaders issued a call late on Friday for an emergency meeting in Jamaica to address Haiti’s situation, inviting the United States, France, Canada, the United Nations and Brazil.

Members of Caricom, the 15-nation regional trade bloc, have been trying for months to get political actors in Haiti to agree to form an umbrella transitional unity government. So far, these efforts have been unsuccessful. 

In a statement late on Friday, Caricom said the situation on the ground remains dire, adding that: “The stakeholders are not yet where they need to be.”

One Port-au-Prince resident, who did not give his name, said of Friday’s attacks: “They [the gangs] came with big guns. We have no guns and we cannot defend ourselves.”

It was unclear whether the unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry would be in Jamaica. He is currently believed to be in Puerto Rico after being refused permission to land in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti.

Mr Henry, appointed prime minister after the 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise, was returning from a visit to Kenya to finalise a deal for the east African nation to lead an armed force to help fight the gangs in Haiti.