Gang members exchanged gunfire with police and soldiers around the Toussaint Louverture International Airport on March 4, 2024, in an attempt to seize control of Haiti’s main air hub and extend the gang coalition’s domination to the country’s primary connection with the outside world. Aircraft were targeted with gunfire during approaches and departures, forcing international airlines to suspend their flights to Port-au-Prince in a near-complete shutdown of commercial air service.
The airport closure had immediate and cascading consequences. Humanitarian organizations that depended on air shipments of medical supplies, food, and other urgent materials found their supply chains severed. Diplomatic missions lost their primary means of staff rotation and communication. The Haitian diaspora lost their main route to visit family or flee the deteriorating situation. And the visibility of the crisis to international media was reduced as foreign journalists who might have flown in to cover the situation could not easily access the country.
The attack on the airport was qualitatively different from previous episodes of gang violence around the facility. Previous incidents had involved isolated shooting near airport perimeters. The March 2024 attack involved deliberate targeting of aircraft — a direct attempt to control the airspace and infrastructure that connected Haiti to the rest of the world.
The airport shutdown added to the closure of the main seaport, which had also suspended operations after being attacked and looted by armed gangs, leaving Haiti’s capital essentially cut off from normal international maritime and air trade. The dual closure of port and airport represented a new dimension of the state’s loss of control over critical national infrastructure.