Gang violence leaves bodies in the streets of Port-au-Prince and causes exodus – 2024-04-04 06:23:03

2024-04-04 06:23:03

A man walks past the body of a police officer killed amid ongoing gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 20, 2024. – Negotiations to form a transitional council to govern Haiti advanced on March 20, as the United States airlifted more citizens to safety from gang violence that has plunged the impoverished country into chaos. (Photo by Clarens SIFFROY / AFP)

Numerous bodies lay this Friday morning in different neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital subjected to gang violence, from which more than 33,000 people have fled in the last 15 days, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The city still bears the traces of several assaults by armed gangs on Thursday and of a military operation that ended the life of a gang leader named Ti Grèg.

An AFP correspondent saw the lifeless bodies, many of them charred, in the center of Port-au-Prince and in the Delmas neighborhood.

A resident also saw bodies in Pétion-Ville, a wealthy commune on the outskirts of the capital, where gangs have tried to gain ground this week.

Faced with the terror of the gangs, which control nearly 80% of the capital, the population has erected barricades on some roads to protect themselves from assaults.

“In recent weeks, armed attacks have intensified in the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (MPZ),” the IOM said in a statement.

In addition to causing displacement in the city and its surroundings, “the attacks and widespread insecurity are forcing more and more people to leave the capital to seek refuge in the provinces, taking the risk of traveling on roads controlled by gangs,” he added. .

The IOM, which collected data at the most used bus stations, observed that 33,333 people left the capital between March 8 and 20, mainly to go to the departments of Greater South, which already host some 116,000 displaced people who fled in the last months.

These “provinces do not have sufficient infrastructure and the host communities do not have enough resources to face these massive displacements from the capital,” the IOM insisted.

Many of the more than 33,000 people who fled the capital were already internally displaced, and in some cases multiple times.

Haiti has experienced weeks of chaos since armed gangs launched a battle against controversial Prime Minister Ariel Henry, with attacks on the airport, police stations, prisons and other public buildings.

Last week, Henry agreed to resign and make way for a presidential council of seven members and two observers, whose formation has been delayed by internal dissension.

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