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The security climate in Haiti has deteriorated considerably in recent days. Clashes between armed gangs have taken place in various districts of Port-au-Prince. These acts have even spread to other neighborhoods so far less affected by insecurity in the country.
With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Marie André Bélange
Bel Air, Solino, Delmas 24, Nazon… For a week now, the neighborhoods in the heart of Port-au-Prince have lived to the rhythm of the violence of armed gangs.
Rival gangs clash with each other and some residents have had to flee their homes to escape the fury of the gangs without knowing where to take refuge. Not only in Port-au-Prince, there have also been shootings in the Croix-des-Bouquets commune.
Over the weekend, the Bel Air sector was again rocked by the detonation of firearms. Gang acts have even spread to fancy places in Haiti. Gangs are breaking into houses and kidnapping residents. In Fort Jacques, a historic and tourist site in the country, armed men set fire to the police sub-station in the area.
Kidnapping cases are also multiplying in the center of the Haitian capital. A schoolgirl and her father were abducted Thursday outside the main gate of a school as he was dropping off his daughter at school. That same day a teacher, his wife, his son and two other people who accompanied them were also kidnapped.
Clashes between armed gangs in the neighborhoods of the Haitian capital have displaced many families. Haitians live in great anguish, fearing the stray bullets of the bandits.
According to various Haitian civil organizations, criminal groups now control the entire capital. Last October, the interim government requested the intervention of a foreign military force in the country. But instead of responding to this request, the international community makes promises and gestures to strengthen the Haitian National Police.
“The gangs are gaining ground, they are getting stronger. So the more time we lose, the more difficult it will be for the Haitian police to restore order,” says Gédéon Jean, who heads the Center for Analysis and Research of Human Rights in Haiti. .
“Today, the international community must make the necessary decision. I am referring in particular to France, the United States and Canada, which are the first to decide on the situation in Haiti. They have a responsibility to restore security. And I quote Emmanuel Macron: ‘security is above all a question of means and not of positions’. We need men on the ground, an international force to accompany the police to carry out the operations. And not promises and conferences, ”he declared.
