When Kenyan police arrived in Haiti as part of a U.N.-backed mission earlier this year to tackle gang violence, hopes were high. Coordinated gang attacks on prisons, police stations and the main international airport had crippled the country’s capital and forced the prime minister to resign,

United Nations evacuation flights are set to land in Panama City this week as the international organization removes staff from Haiti due to a sharp escalation in violence by armed gangs that have expanded their control over the capital Port-au-Prince.

Since January, nearly five thousand civilian deaths have occurred as a result of relentless gang warfare in Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital city, and its immediate environs. The country itself has slid into a catastrophic humanitarian emergency,