Haitians scramble to survive, seeking food, water and safety as gang violence chokes the capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — As the sun sets, a burly man bellows into a megaphone while a curious crowd gathers around him. Next to him is a small cardboard box with several banknotes worth 10 Haitian gourdes — about 7 U.S. cents.

“Everyone give whatever they have!” the man shouts as he grabs the arms and hands of people entering a neighborhood in the capital of Port-au-Prince that has been targeted by violent gangs.

The community recently voted to buy a metal barricade and install it themselves to try to protect residents from the unrelenting violence that killed or injured more than 2,500 people in Haiti from January to March.

“Every day I wake up and find a dead body,” said Noune-Carme Manoune, an immigration officer.

Life in Port-au-Prince has become a game of survival, pushing Haitians to new limits as they scramble to stay safe and alive while gangs overwhelm the police and the government remains largely absent. Some are installing metal barricades. Others press hard on the gas while driving near gang-controlled areas. The few who can afford it stockpile water, food, money and medication, supplies of which have dwindled since the main international airport closed in early March. The country's biggest seaport is largely paralyzed by marauding gangs.

“People living in the capital are locked in, they have nowhere to go,” Philippe Branchat, International Organization for Migration chief in Haiti, said in a recent statement. “The capital is surrounded by armed groups and danger. It is a city under siege.”

Phones ping often with alerts reporting gunfire, kidnappings and fatal shootings, and some supermarkets have so many armed guards that they resemble small police stations.

Gang attacks used to occur only in certain areas, but now they can happen anywhere, any time. Staying home does not guarantee safety: One man playing with his daughter at home was shot in the back by a stray bullet. Others have been killed.

Schools and gas stations are shuttered, with fuel on the black market selling for $9 a gallon, roughly three times the official price. Banks have prohibited customers from withdrawing more than $100 a day, and checks that used to take three days to clear now take a month or more. Police officers have to wait weeks to be paid.

“Everyone is under stress,” said Isidore Gédéon, a 38-year-old musician. “After the prison break, people don’t trust anyone. The state doesn’t have control.”

Gangs that control an estimated 80% of Port-au-Prince launched coordinated attacks on Feb. 29, targeting critical state infrastructure. They set fire to police stations, shot up the airport and stormed into Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

At the time, Prime Minister Ariel Henry was visiting Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force. Henry remains locked out of Haiti, and a transitional presidential council tasked with selecting the country’s next prime minister and Cabinet could be sworn in as early as this week. Henry has pledged to resign once a new leader is installed.

Few believe this will end the crisis. It’s not only the gangs unleashing violence; Haitians have embraced a vigilante movement known as “bwa kale,” that has killed several hundred suspected gang members or their associates.

“There are certain communities I can’t go to because everyone is scared of everyone,” Gédéon said. “You could be innocent, and you end up dead.”

More than 95,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in one month alone as gangs raid communities, torching homes and killing people in territories controlled by their rivals.

Those who flee via bus to Haiti’s southern and northern regions risk being gang-raped or killed as they pass through gang-controlled areas where gunmen have opened fire.

Violence in the capital has left some 160,000 people homeless, according to the IOM.

“This is hell,” said Nelson Langlois, a producer and cameraman.

Langlois, his wife and three children spent two nights lying flat on the roof of their home as gangs raided the neighborhood.

“Time after time, we peered over to see when we could flee,” he recalled.

Forced to split up because of the lack of shelter, Langlois is living in a Vodou temple and his wife and children are elsewhere in Port-au-Prince.

Like most people in the city, Langlois usually stays indoors. The days of pickup soccer games on dusty roads and the nights of drinking Prestige beer in bars with hip-hop, reggae or African music playing are long gone.

“It’s an open-air prison,” Langlois said.

The violence has also forced businesses, government agencies and schools to close, leaving scores of Haitians unemployed.

Manoune, the government immigration officer, said she has been earning money selling treated water since she has no work because deportations are stalled.

Meanwhile, Gédéon said he no longer plays the drums for a living, noting that bars and other venues are shuttered. He sells small plastic bags of water on the street and has become a handyman, installing fans and fixing appliances.

Even students are joining the workforce as the crisis deepens poverty across Haiti.

Sully, a 10th grader whose school closed nearly two months ago, stood on a street corner in the community of Pétion-Ville selling gasoline that he buys on the black market.

“You have to be careful,” said Sully, who asked that his last name be withheld for safety. “During the morning it’s safer.”

He sells about five gallons a week, generating roughly $40 for his family, but he cannot afford to join his classmates who are learning remotely.

“Online class is for people more fortunate than me, who have more money,” Sully said.

The European Union last week announced the launch of a humanitarian air bridge from the Central American country of Panama to Haiti. Five flights have landed in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, site of Haiti’s sole functioning airport, bringing 62 tons of medicine, water, emergency shelter equipment and other essential supplies.

But there is no guarantee that critical items will reach those who most need them. Many Haitians remain trapped in their homes, unable to buy or look for food amid whizzing bullets.

Aid groups say nearly 2 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, more than 600,000 of them children.

Nonetheless, people are finding ways to survive.

Back in the neighborhood where residents are installing a metal barricade, sparks fly as one man cuts metal while others shovel and mix cement. They are well underway, and hope to finish the project soon.

Others remain skeptical, citing reports of gangs jumping into loaders and other heavy equipment to tear down police stations and, more recently, metal barricades.

FILE - Street vendors withdraw from the area where they were selling their bread, near the National Palace, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - Laundry hangs to dry om makeshift clotheslines as children play in the courtyard of a shelter for families displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - People look at a body after an overnight shooting in the Petion Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - Youth take cover after hearing gunshots at a public school that serves as a shelter for people displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - People crowd around a fuel pump at a gas station in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - A vendor carries empty containers for fuel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - Residents fill their containers with potable water, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

A man, who says he was shot in the hand by a gang member, is treated at a Doctors Without Borders emergency room in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

FILE - Motorcyclists navigate around a charred body lying in the road as pedestrians walk past, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - A server ladles soup into a container as children line up to receive food at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - A child watches from an opening in a security gate as residents flee their homes due to gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

FILE - A vendor balances on his head a bag filled with smaller bags of water in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)

Neighbors pass in and out of a passageway as others erect a metal gate as protection against gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Neighbors pass in and out of a passageway as others erect a metal gate as protection against gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Neighbors pass in and out of a passageway as others erect a metal gate as protection against gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Neighbors raise a metal gate as they work to install as a barricade as protection against gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Neighbors raise a metal gate as they work to install it as a barricade as protection against gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man lifts a chain being used as a barricade for neighbors to pass into the neighborhood as they work to prepare a metal gate to protect themselves from gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A resident uses a loudspeaker to ask neighbors for a donation to pay for a metal gate to be installed as a barricade as protection against gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Neighbors raise a metal gate as they work to install it as a barricade against gangs, in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) —

With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat was Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of them operating by 2028.

It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot generation is training AI agents to fly in war. Kendall traveled here to see AI fly in real time and make a public statement of confidence in its future role in air combat.

“It’s a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it,” Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after he landed. The AP, along with NBC, was granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition that it would not be reported until it was complete because of operational security concerns.

The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew Kendall in lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 550 miles an hour that put pressure on his body at five times the force of gravity. It went nearly nose to nose with a second human-piloted F-16 as both aircraft raced within 1,000 feet of each other, twisting and looping to try force their opponent into vulnerable positions.

At the end of the hourlong flight, Kendall climbed out of the cockpit grinning. He said he’d seen enough during his flight that he’d trust this still-learning AI with the ability to decide whether or not to launch weapons.

There’s a lot of opposition to that idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned that AI one day might be able to autonomously drop bombs that kill people without further human consultation, and they are seeking greater restrictions on its use.

“There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life-and-death decisions to sensors and software,” the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned. Autonomous weapons “are an immediate cause of concern and demand an urgent, international political response.”

The military’s shift to AI-enabled planes is driven by security, cost and strategic capability. If the U.S. and China should end up in conflict, for example, today's Air Force fleet of expensive, manned fighters will be vulnerable because of gains on both sides in electronic warfare, space and air defense systems. China’s air force is on pace to outnumber the U.S. and it is also amassing a fleet of flying unmanned weapons.

Future war scenarios envision swarms of American unmanned aircraft providing an advance attack on enemy defenses to give the U.S. the ability to penetrate an airspace without high risk to pilot lives. But the shift is also driven by money. The Air Force is still hampered by production delays and cost overruns in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will cost an estimated of $1.7 trillion.

Smaller and cheaper AI-controlled unmanned jets are the way ahead, Kendall said.

Vista’s military operators say no other country in the world has an AI jet like it, where the software first learns on millions of data points in a simulator, then tests its conclusions during actual flights. That real-world performance data is then put back into the simulator where the AI then processes it to learn more.

China has AI, but there’s no indication it has found a way to run tests outside a simulator. And, like a junior officer first learning tactics, some lessons can only be learned in the air, Vista’s test pilots said.

Until you actually fly, “it’s all guesswork,” chief test pilot Bill Gray said. “And the longer it takes you to figure that out, the longer it takes before you have useful systems.”

Vista flew its first AI-controlled dogfight in September 2023, and there have only been about two dozen similar flights since. But the programs are learning so quickly from each engagement that some AI versions getting tested on Vista are already beating human pilots in air-to-air combat.

The pilots at this base are aware that in some respects, they may be training their replacements or shaping a future construct where fewer of them are needed.

But they also say they would not want to be up in the sky against an adversary that has AI-controlled aircraft if the U.S. does not also have its own fleet.

“We have to keep running. And we have to run fast,” Kendall said.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall smiles after a test flight of the X-62A VISTA aircraft against a human-crewed F-16 aircraft in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The flight on the Artificial Intelligence-controlled VISTA is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, right, and Maj. Ryan Forystek, an X-62A VISTA Pilot for SecAF flight, climb into the cockpit of the X-62A VISTA aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The AI-controlled aircraft that flew Kendall served as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, right, talks to Col. James Valpiani, Commandant, USAF TPS, after Kendall's test flight of the X-62A VISTA aircraft against a human-crewed F-16 aircraft in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The flight is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Col. James Valpiani, Air Force Test Pilot School commandant, explains the Artificial Intelligence capabilities of the X-62A VISTA aircraft dogfighting on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The Artificial Intelligence-controlled flight, with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

An Air Force mechanic checks the interior of the X-62A Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft, or VISTA, after it performed several AI flight tests in which AI agents piloted to perform advanced fighter maneuvers against a human-crewed F-16 aircraft in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The flight is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendal addresses the future role of Artificial Intelligence in air combat at USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The X-62A VISTA aircraft, an AI-controlled experimental F-16, flew Kendall in maneuvers that put 5Gs of pressure on his body at speeds exceeding 550 miles an hour. The flight is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The X-62A VISTA aircraft, an experimental AI-enabled Air Force F-16 fighter jet, takes off on Thursday, May 2, 2024, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The flight, with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall riding in the front seat, is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall sits in the front cockpit of an X-62A VISTA aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The flight on the AI-controlled aircraft is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are concerned that AI might one day be able to take lives autonomously and are seeking greater restrictions on its use. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

An AI-enabled Air Force F-16 fighter jet, left, flies next to an adversary F-16, as both aircraft race within 1,000 feet of each other, trying to force their opponent into vulnerable positions, on Thursday, May 2, 2024, above Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The flight is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

This image from remote video released by the U.S. Air Force shows Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall during his experimental flight inside the cockpit of a X-62A VISTA aircraft autonomous warplane above Edwards Air Base, Calif, on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The AI-controlled flight is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. (United States Air Force Photo via AP)

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall sits in the front cockpit of an X-62A VISTA aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The flight on the Artificial Intelligence-controlled modified F-16, is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are concerned that AI might one day be able to take lives autonomously and are seeking greater restrictions on its use. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)