Gangs pushing for the ouster of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry have been setting fire to police stations in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The police station located in the busy Salomon market is the latest to be targeted, according to local media.
The three-day state of emergency has now been extended by a month.
The gangs in the violence-wracked city stepped up their attacks when Mr Henry left for a regional summit last week.
The unrest has paralysed air traffic, which has prevented his return.
Mr Henry attempted to fly back to Port-au-Prince on Tuesday but ended up in the US territory of Puerto Rico instead.
He could not land in the Haitian capital because its international airport was closed as soldiers repelled attempts by gunmen to seize it.
Civil aviation authorities in the neighbouring Dominican Republic also turned the prime minister’s plane away, saying that they had not been provided with the necessary flight plan.
Mr Henry has not given any public statements since he visited Kenya, where he met President William Ruto to salvage a deal for the African country to lead a multi-national force to help restore order in Haiti.
The two leaders signed a reciprocal agreement which paves the way for 2,000 Kenyan police officers to be sent to Haiti but a Kenyan opposition politician says he will challenge the deal in court.
Meanwhile, several Kenyan police officers who had volunteered for the deployment have opted out for their safety.
One officer told the BBC that there were no clear mechanisms on how they were required to work while on the mission. Another said some members of his squad had withdrawn following the recent rise in violence.
Gangs in Port-au-Prince have taken advantage of Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s absence to unleash a series of co-ordinated attacks.
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Publish date : 2024-03-06 11:00:00
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