PORT-AU-PRINCE – Haiti’s international airport was closed Monday after gangs opened fire on a commercial flight landing at Port-au-Princeprompting some airlines to temporarily suspend operations as the country swore in a new caretaker prime minister who promised to restore peace.

The Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Port-au-Prince was just a few hundred meters from landing in the Haitian capital when gangs fired on the plane, hitting a police officer. board who was slightly injured, according to the airline and the United States. Embassy and flight tracking data. The flight was diverted and landed in the Dominican Republic.

Photos and video obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes dotting the interior of a plane.

The shooting appears to be part of what the U.S. Embassy called “gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince, which may include armed violence and disruption of roads, ports and airports. Spirit, JetBlue and American Airlines announced Monday that they are canceling flights to and from Haiti.

In other neighborhoods of the Haitian capital, exchanges of fire between gangs and police broke out. Gunshots echoed through the streets as heavily armed officers hid behind walls and civilians ran in terror. In other wealthy neighborhoods, gangs burned down homes. Schools closed as panic spread in several regions.

The unrest comes the day after a council supposed to restore democratic order in this Caribbean country. fired interim Prime Minister Garry Conillereplacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. The council was marked by infighting and three members were recently accused of corruption.

During his swearing-in, Fils-Aimé said his main priorities were restoring peace to the crisis-hit country and organizing elections, which have not been held in Haiti since 2016.

“There is much to be done to restore hope,” he told a room full of diplomats and security officials. “I am deeply sorry for the people… who were victimized, forced to leave everything they own.”

The country has seen weeks of political chaos, which observers warn could lead to even more violence in a place where bloodshed has become the new norm. The country’s gangs have long taken advantage of political unrest to seize power, close airports, transport ports and sow chaos.

The United Nations estimates gangs control 85% of the capital of Port-au-Prince, while a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police to quell gang violence, struggles with lack of funding and staffing, prompting calls for a UN peacekeeping mission.

Louis-Henri Mars, executive director of Lakou Lapè, an organization working to build peace in Haiti’s violent areas, said political fighting has “allowed gangs to have more freedom to attack more neighborhoods of the city and extend their control over Port-au-Prince, he fears, will suffer the consequences.

“There will be more lives lost, more internal displacement and more hunger in a country where half the population is on the brink of starvation,” he said.

The transition council was created in April, tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and cabinet in the hopes that it would help quell the violence, which exploded after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

The council was supposed to pave the way for democratic elections. Gangs took advantage of this power vacuum to gain power of their own.

But the council is beset by political and internal conflicts, and has long been at odds with Conillethe interim Prime Minister whom they chose six months ago and whom they sacked yesterday.

Organizations including the Organization of American States tried unsuccessfully last week to mediate disagreements to try to save the fragile transition.

On Monday, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujaric urged everyone involved in Haiti’s democratic transition “to work together constructively,” although he did not comment on the decision to oust Conille.

“It is essential to overcome their differences and put the country first,” he said. “What is important is that Haitian political leaders put Haiti’s interests first. »

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Associated Press reporter David Koenig contributed to this report from Dallas and Pierre-Richard Luxama from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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