With airport closed amid gang crisis in Haiti, Sask. man waiting to get out

Richard Phillips knew it was time to leave his hotel in Haiti when he heard gunshots between staff and the armed militants they were fighting off.

He estimated he heard a couple hundred gunshots over about an hour and a half.

"It's kind of hard to sleep peacefully with all that spreading gunfire going on," the Tisdale, Sask., man said.

Phillips is stuck in Haiti amidst a violent civil power struggle that has paralyzed the Caribbean country, shutting down schools, businesses and the airport in the capital city. Police officers and civilians have been killed. The country's Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, was stranded in Puerto Rico on Tuesday because it wasn't safe for his plane to land at home. Some of the country's most powerful gang leaders are battling to fill that absence.

Gangs are also working to remove Henry, whose government has been widely perceived as illegitimate since he took power more than two years ago following the assassination of the former leader President Jovenel Moïse. 

As of Wednesday, Henry was still in Puerto Rico, according to The Associated Press.

Phillips said when he arrived in Haiti on Feb. 25, "It was quite peaceful."

His idea of peace is different from many others.

In the past, he said he and his wife have had to drop to the floor of a restaurant to avoid the bullets zipping above them. Phillips also described having bullet holes in the side of his truck.

Phillips estimates he has travelled to Haiti about 37 times in eight years. He has done multiple agricultural projects in the country and has lived there with his wife for about two years, so he said he has an emotional attachment to the place and its people. 

And he knows the risks. But he's always been able to get out when he needed to.

"This is a new level of trouble that we've never experienced before," he said.

As with any time he travels to the country, he asks locals in Haiti about the political climate. He said everything appeared fine, so he and a colleague from Quebec, Dave Rocheleau, travelled there to train and teach Haitian farmers to use certain equipment as part of a Canadian federal project to increase corn yields.

A week after he landed, and the day he was supposed to leave, the Haitian government declared a state of emergency in response to gang violence. Two days later, the government of the Dominican Republic closed its air borders with Haiti.