PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 14 (Reuters) - A powerful gang

leader in Haiti has issued a threatening message aimed at

political leaders who would participate in a planned transition

council, as fires broke out amid a fresh surge of violence in

the Caribbean nation's capital.

Nearby countries bolstered their border security and

withdrew staff from embassies while plans to send a long-awaited

international security force remain uncertain.

After unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced on

Monday he would step down once the council was in place, the

capital, Port-au-Prince, was initially quieter, but violence

appeared to be flaring up again as of late Wednesday, with a

shootout in one neighborhood and an attack on the police academy

early on Thursday.

A fire broke out at the main penitentiary, emptied of

prisoners by armed men earlier this month. Thick black smoke

earlier billowed out from the facility, but the fire appeared to

be out by Thursday afternoon, when local media showed heavily

armed police entering the partially blackened site filled with

mounds of trash.

Reuters could not immediately establish if any people had

remained in the jail or what sparked the blaze.

A police union said the national police chief Frantz Elbe's

house had also been set on fire on Thursday. It did not say

whether anyone had been hurt or give details on Elbe's

whereabouts.

Haiti is struggling to resolve a long-running political and

humanitarian crisis. Heavily armed gangs have taken over much of

the capital, and rights groups have reported widespread

killings, kidnappings and sexual violence. Hundreds of thousands

of people have been displaced.

Henry, who was never elected, had been appointed prime

minister by President Jovenel Moise in 2021, shortly before

Moise was assassinated. Henry repeatedly postponed elections.

The comments from gang alliance head Jimmy "Barbeque"

Cherizier were recorded on Wednesday and distributed via a

rambling seven-minute audio message widely shared on Thursday

morning on messaging platform WhatsApp.

"Don't you have any shame?" said Cherizier, directing his

remarks at politicians who he said were looking to join the

council. "You have taken the country where it is today. You have

no idea what will happen," he added.

"I'll know if your kids are in Haiti, if your wives are in

Haiti ... if your husbands are in Haiti," he said in an apparent

threat to their families. "If you're gonna run the country all

your family ought to be there."

In his remarks, Cherizier said the resignation of Henry was

only "a first step in the battle" for the island nation of

around 11 million.

Haiti's government again extended a nightly curfew through

Sunday, in an order signed by acting Prime Minister Michel

Boisvert. Henry has been stranded abroad since trying to return

from a trip to Kenya to secure support for a security mission.

Regional bloc CARICOM has detailed the political parties and

other social sectors set to make up the nine-member transition

council that will take over from Henry. Negotiations over the

council were brokered by Caribbean leaders and U.S. Secretary of

State Antony Blinken, but formal appointments are yet to be

made.

On Wednesday, the leader of a party declined an offer of a

voting member of the council, backing instead an alternate

three-member transition council that would empower former coup

leader Guy Philippe, who was recently imprisoned in the United

States and is seeking an amnesty for gang leaders.

EMBASSY REDUCTIONS

With Haiti's political future in limbo and the timing of the

long-delayed Kenyan-led security mission unclear, the already

sparse international presence in Haiti has been further

receding.

Canada announced a reduction to its embassy staff that will

leave only essential employees in the country, and said the

embassy was temporarily closed to the public. That follows

similar drawdowns by the United Nations and at the U.S. embassy.

The country's main cargo port said that despite military

reinforcements, it would not receive vessels until further

notice, as it assesses damages to containers and infrastructure.

Major passenger cruise line Royal Caribbean Group also

suspended for a week its regular visits to Labadee, its private

resort in northern Haiti.

Fearing a spread of instability in the region, Britain said

it was bolstering security in the Turks and Caicos Islands, an

overseas territory, as did the governor of the U.S. state of

Florida. The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of

Hispanolia with Haiti, closed its shared border with Haiti last

year and has regularly deported Haitians.

The U.S. southeast coast guard said, "At this time,

irregular migration flows through the Caribbean remain low."

Dominican media reported that aviation authorities in a

press conference rejected a U.N. statement claiming that an

airbridge would be set up from the country to bring humanitarian

aid to Haiti, maintaining the airspace would remain closed.

Aid group Mercy Corps said Port-au-Prince residents were

being reduced to "forced nomads," seeking refuge from shootings

in temporary shelters with family or strangers and battling

constant uncertainty, food shortages, trauma, illness and

overcrowding.

Marie Love Elucien, 25, who lost her home and shop due to

gangs, told Mercy Corps that she was most afraid for her young

daughter: "I'm worried she's going to have a fit and become

paralyzed because every time she hears the shots she jumps and

screams.

"She cries incessantly and no one can touch her; she becomes

hysterical and uncontrollable," she said.

More than 360,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti,

according to U.N. estimates.

Gina Antoine, a 43-year-old pregnant mother of three, told

Mercy Corps that she was exhausted from moving between

neighborhoods and could not run anymore.

"We face inhumane situations daily, walking among corpses.

Gangs can attack at any moment," she said. "I have nowhere else

to go. I wish everything could return to normal."