Port-au-Prince sinks into violence: 89 dead in gang clashes

At least 89 people have been killed in one week in clashes between gangs in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, where prices are soaring and fuel shortages are worsening.

 

At least 89 people were murdered and 16 others are missing, said the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights in a statement on Wednesday, July 13, adding that the partial toll of the violence also includes 74 people wounded by bullets or knives.

 

For a week now, automatic weapons have been crackling all day long in Cité Soleil, the most underprivileged and densely populated commune in the metropolitan area: two factions of gangs are fighting each other without the police, who are short of men and equipment, intervening.

 

Along the corridors of the slums that have formed over the past four decades, thousands of families have no choice but to hole up in their homes, unable to get water and food.

 

Some residents are victims of stray bullets inside their modest homes, made of simple metal sheets, but ambulances are not allowed to circulate freely in the area to help the injured.

 

We call on all the warring parties to allow the passage of aid to Brooklyn (the name of the neighborhood of Cité Soleil where the violence is concentrated, editor's note) and to spare civilians, urged Mumuza Muhindo, head of mission of Doctors Without Borders, on Wednesday.

 

Hampered in its operations of evacuation of victims, the humanitarian organization has nevertheless operated on an average of 15 injured people per day since Friday, in its hospital located near Cité Soleil.

 

Along the only road leading to Brooklyn, we came across decomposing or burned corpses, added Mumuza Muhindo. These could be people killed in the clashes or trying to flee and have been shot. It's a real battlefield. 

 

These deadly clashes between gangs are affecting all activities throughout the capital, as Cité Soleil is the location of the oil terminal that supplies Port-au-Prince and all of northern Haiti. Throughout the capital, gas stations are no longer dispensing a drop of fuel, causing black market prices to skyrocket.

 

In anger at this situation, motorcycle cab drivers erected a number of barricades across the main roads of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. Faced with this spontaneous movement, only short trips by motorcycle within the neighborhoods were possible, AFP journalists were able to observe.

 

Under such conditions, the inhabitants of the capital are struggling to organize their daily activities, already hampered by the risk of kidnapping. For more than two years, gangs have multiplied their kidnappings in the city, kidnapping people of all socio-economic backgrounds and nationalities. Enjoying widespread impunity, the criminal gangs have increased their actions over the weeks: at least 155 kidnappings were committed in June, compared to 118 in May, said the Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research in its latest report published Wednesday.