Officers stopped a truck carrying gang members in the wealthy suburb of Petion-Ville at about 2:00 am, while a bus ferrying gang members was intercepted in the city center, Haitian National Police spokesman Lionel Lazarre told AFP.
Last year, in a gruesome chapter of vigilante reprisals, a dozen alleged gang members were stoned and burned alive by residents in Port-au-Prince.
Viv Ansanm spokesman Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherisier, a notorious gang leader, has called for the resignation of the transitional government currently leading the country.
“The Viv Ansanm coalition will use all its means to achieve the departure of the CPT,” Cherisier said Monday, using the acronym for the Transitional Presidential Council.
More than 20,000 people had been displaced across Port-au-Prince in just four days last week, the UN’s International Organization for Migration warned over the weekend.
According to Haitian National Police spokesman Lionel Lazarre, who spoke to AFP, at around 2:00 am, officers stopped a truck carrying gang members in the affluent suburb of Petion-Ville, and they also stopped a bus carrying gang members in the city center.
Ten were killed when police opened fire in both encounters. Residents who were against the gangs and their violent control over large areas of the country formed self-defense groups to help them hunt down those who had fled.
Residents of Port-au-Prince stoned and burned alive twelve suspected gang members last year in a graphic episode of vigilante retaliation.
Although a Kenyan-led international force has been sent in to assist the outgunned police, well-armed gangs still control about 80% of the city and frequently target civilians.
renewed acts of violence.
Viv Ansanm, a gang coalition that assisted in the removal of former prime minister Ariel Henry in February, has resumed fighting in the Haitian capital in the past week.
In a number of neighborhoods, police and locals erected barricades Tuesday, nearly closing the streets.
Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherisier, a well-known gang leader and spokesperson for Viv Ansanm, has demanded that the country’s current transitional government step down.
According to Cherisier, who used the acronym for the Transitional Presidential Council, “The Viv Ansanm coalition will use all its means to achieve the departure of the CPT” on Monday.
The council, which is composed of unelected officials and has been given the challenging task of guiding the nation toward its first elections since 2016, is in a state of internal turmoil.
The outgoing premier, Garry Conille, who was appointed in May but got caught up in a power struggle with the council, was replaced by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimewas, who was sworn in last week.
In the meantime, the capital is still trembling with violence.
In just four days last week, over 20,000 people were forced to flee Port-au-Prince, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration warned over the weekend.
Last week, the United States banned all civilian flights to the country for a month after three jetliners were shot down as they approached or left Port-au-Prince, cutting off the nation’s main connections to the outside world.
[AFP].
