gangs in haiti Several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince were cordoned off early Thursday, with homes burned and hours of shootout with police, while hundreds of people fled in violence in one of the largest attacks since the announcement of Haiti’s new prime minister. Ran away from.
The attacks began late Wednesday in Solino and surrounding neighborhoods including Delmas 18, 20 and 24, southwest of the main international airport, which has been closed for nearly two months due to persistent gang violence.
“The gangs started burning everything in sight,” said a man named Nene, who declined to give his last name out of fear. “I hid in a corner the whole night.”
He was walking with a friend and between them was a dusty red suitcase filled with clothes – the only thing they could save. The clothes belonged to Nene’s children, whom he had taken out of Delmas 18 around dawn during a pause in the fighting.
Areas that were once bustling with traffic and pedestrians became like ghost towns shortly after sunrise, with the area falling silent except for the occasional bleating of a lone goat.
Residents walk past a burned car blocking a road as they evacuate the Delmas 22 neighborhood the morning after an attack amid gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Happened. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
An armored police truck patrolled the streets, passing burned-out vehicles and cinderblock walls, where someone had scrawled “Viv Babque”, a reference in Haitian Creole to one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders. .
People whose homes escaped the attack in Delmas 18 and other nearby communities carried fans, stoves, mattresses and plastic bags filled with clothes in their hands as they fled on foot, motorcycles or in colorful small buses known as tap-taps. Took bags of. Having lost everything else, they were walking empty handed.
“There were gunshots coming from left and right,” said Paul Pierre, 47. Who was walking on foot with his companion in search of shelter after his house burnt down. They could not save any of their belongings.
He said the overnight fighting separated children from their parents and husbands from their wives as people fled in panic: “Everyone is just trying to save themselves.”
Martineda, a woman who declined to give her last name out of fear, said she was left homeless after armed gunmen set fire to her house. She fled with her 4-year-old child, she said, as she tried to escape when the shooting happened late Wednesday night.
“I told her, ‘Don’t be afraid. This is life in Haiti,'” she said, carrying on her head a heavy load of goods, including butter, which she hoped to sell to make some money and find a new home.
When asked what happened throughout the night, he said, “Shooting, shooting, shooting everywhere! Nobody slept. Everybody was running.”
The attack took place in an area controlled by former elite police officer Jimmy Charizier, known as Barbecue, the leader of a powerful gang syndicate known as the G9 Family and Allies.
He and other gang leaders have been blamed for coordinated attacks that began on February 29 across the capital. Port-au-Prince, Gunmen burned police stations, opened fire at the main international airport and attacked Haiti’s two largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 prisoners.
The attacks eventually forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign and led to the creation of a transitional presidential council whose majority unexpectedly announced a new prime minister on Tuesday: Fritz Belizaire, a former sports minister. The move threatens to break up the nine-member council, which was sworn in last week.
As new leaders take charge of the country amid the fighting, Haitians are demanding that they prioritize their own security as gangs are more powerful and better armed than Haiti’s national police.
According to the United Nations, more than 2,500 people have been killed or injured from January to March this year, an increase of more than 50% compared with the same period last year.
Meanwhile, more than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just a month as gangs that control an estimated 80% of the capital increasingly target previously peaceful neighborhoods.
Ernest Aubrey recalled how he moved to Delmas 18 a decade ago. Now, he is leaving home for the first time.
He said of the gangs, “It’s too much. We can’t resist any longer.” “They’re taking everything we have.”
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As he was walking with a heavy bag, he saw an acquaintance getting into a car and ran towards them to see if he could get a ride.
One of the few who chose to live in Delmas 18 was Vanessa Vieques. While he sent his elderly mother to the countryside early Wednesday after the attack, he decided it would be better not to leave his home to the gangs. Additionally, he also has confidence in Haiti’s National Police.
“I live next door to a police officer,” she said. “That’s why I’m not afraid.”
