By Dánica Coto, PORT-AU-PRINCE
Haiti
Gangs in Haiti laid siege to several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, burning homes and exchanging gunfire with police for hours as hundreds fled the violence early Thursday in one of the biggest attacks since Haiti’s new prime minister was announced.
The attacks began late
Wednesday in neighborhoods including Solino and Delmas 18, 20 and 24 located
southwest of the main international airport, which has remained closed for
nearly two months amid
relentless gang violence.
“The gangs started burning
everything in sight,” said a man called Néne, who declined to give his last
name out of fear. “I was hiding in a corner all night.”
He walked with a friend as
they carried a dusty red suitcase between them that was stuffed with clothes —
the only thing they could save. The clothes belonged to Néne’s children, whom
he had rushed out of Delmas 18 around dawn during a pause in the fighting.
The neighborhoods that once
bustled with traffic and pedestrians were like ghost towns shortly after
sunrise, with a heavy silence blanketing the area except for the occasional
bleating from a lone goat.
An armored police truck
patrolled the streets, rolling past charred vehicles and cinderblock walls
where someone had scrawled “Viv Babecue,” a reference in Haitian Creole
to one
of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders.
People whose homes were spared
in the attack in Delmas 18 and other nearby communities clutched fans, stoves,
mattresses and plastic bags filled with clothes as they fled by foot,
motorcycle or on colorful small buses known as tap-taps. Others were walking
empty-handed, having lost everything.
“There
were gunshots left and right,” said Paul Pierre, 47, who was walking with his
partner in search of shelter after their house was burned down. They couldn’t
save any of their belongings.
He said the overnight fighting
separated children from their parents and husbands from their wives as people
fled in terror: “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 torched her home. She fled with her 4-year-old, whom she said
tried to run away when the gunfire erupted late Wednesday.
“I told him, ‘Don’t be scared.
This is life in Haiti,’” she said as she balanced a heavy load of goods on her
head including butter that she hoped to sell to make some money and find a new
home.
When asked to recount what
happened overnight, she said: “Gunfire, gunfire, gunfire everywhere! No one
slept. Everyone was running.”
The attack occurred in an area
controlled by Jimmy
Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who is leader of
a powerful gang federation known as G9 Family and Allies.
He and other gang leaders have
been blamed for coordinated attacks that began on Feb. 29 across the capital,
Port-au-Prince. Gunmen have burned police stations, opened fire on the main
international airport and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more
than 4,000 inmates.
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 Bélizaire, a former sports minister. The move
is threatening to fracture the nine-member
council, which was sworn in last week.
As new leaders take charge of
the country amid squabbling, Haitians are demanding that they prioritize their
safety as gangs remain more powerful and better armed than Haiti’s National
Police.
More than 2,500 people have
been killed or injured from January to March of this year, a more than 50%
increase compared with the same period last year, according to the U.N.
Meanwhile, more than 90,000
people have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month as gangs that control an
estimated 80% of the capital have increasingly been targeting previously
peaceful neighborhoods.
Ernest Aubrey recalled how he
moved to Delmas 18 a decade ago. Now, he’s leaving home for the first time.
“It’s too much. We can’t
resist anymore,” he said of the gangs. “They are taking everything we own.”
As he walked with a heavy bag,
he spotted an acquaintance leaving in a car and ran toward them to see if he
could get a ride.
One of the few people who
opted to stay in Delmas 18 was Vanessa Vieux. While she sent her elderly mother
to the countryside early Wednesday after the attack, she decided it was best if
she didn’t relinquish her home to gangs. Plus, she has faith in Haiti’s
National Police.
“I live next to a police
officer,” she said. “That’s why I’m not scared.”
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