By Gessika Thomas and Brian Ellworth
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haitian demonstrators protesting against crime in the city of Les Cayes on Tuesday burned a plane belonging to U.S. missionary group Agape Flights, according to local media reports and an Agape spokeswoman.
The protesters entered the local airport in Les Cayes in Haiti’s southern peninsula even though police fired tear gas to keep them out, Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported on its website.
“Our team on the ground is safe, we’re making preparations to get them back safely,” said the spokeswoman for Agape Flights, a Venice, Florida based missionary group that flies mail and humanitarian supplies to Caribbean countries.
The organization is still gathering information about the incident, the spokeswoman added.
It was not immediately clear why the protesters had targeted the plane.
The incident followed peaceful protests in other parts of the country in which activists demanded that the government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry do more to address gang violence including constant kidnappings.
(Reporting by Gessika Thomas in Port-au-Prince and Brian Ellsworth in Miami; Editing by Sandra Maler)
