Aid worker describes terror as gangs wage war on Haiti's leader

A British aid worker who is one of dozens of foreigners stranded in Haiti after a gang insurrection against the government has described the "fear and bewilderment" of being marooned in a city under siege.

- Tom Phillips

Matt Knight, the director for the Irish humanitarian aid agency Goal Global in Haiti, flew into its capital, Port-au-Prince, three days before the uprising against Ariel Henry, the prime minister, began on 29 February.

"I spent six months in Ukraine when they started bombing Kyiv and this is worse than that," the 55-yearold from Sheffield said yesterday after another night in which he was woken by the sound of semi-automatic gunfire.

"I just lie there listening to [the shooting]. My mind won't switch off," said Knight, who has been kept awake by a series of gun battles between security forces and gangs trying to storm the international airport.

Each day an NGO WhatsApp group fills with warnings and video footage of the latest attacks. "It just feels like it's getting closer and closer," said Knight, who admitted to feeling baffled by the nature of the violence, which seemed both highly calculated and terrifyingly indiscriminate.