The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Saturday alerted U.S. citizens of ongoing security operations north and south of the embassy and in Croix-de-Bouquets. <\/p>\n
Heavy gunfire was reported in the Haitian capital, prompting U.S. government personnel to halt all movements, according to an alert from the Department of State.<\/p>\n
The embassy remains open for emergency services.<\/p>\n
Officials urged nearby U.S. citizens to avoid the area and monitor local media for updates.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Armed gangs control large portions of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, according to the U.S. State Department and the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). <\/p>\n
Croix-de-Bouquets, one of the areas referenced in Saturday\u2019s security alert, has long been considered a ‘400 Mawozo’ gang stronghold.<\/p>\n
‘400 Mawozo’ gang leader Joly Germine, 34, of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, was sentenced to life in prison in December for his role in the 2021 abduction of 16 American citizens, including five children, Fox News Digital previously reported.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The victims, with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, were on their way back from an orphanage when they were taken hostage, according to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
The State Department currently maintains a Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ advisory for Haiti, citing kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited health care.<\/p>\n
The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Saturday alerted U.S. citizens of ongoing security operations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketspaceinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}