The leader of one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs was wounded in a shootout with Haitian and Kenyan police, in the first major incursion by law enforcement authorities into gang-controlled territory since the start of the U.N.-backed mission to early this year, the Police reported this Tuesday.
The second-in-command of the Kraze Baryè gang, known simply as “Deshommes,” was shot in Torcelle, a community controlled by the gang in the southeast region of Port-au-Prince, the capital, a statement said.
Nearly 20 more members of the gang lost their lives in the police operations, which took place on Saturday and Monday, and authorities added that they confiscated firearms, ammunition, phones and “sensitive materials and equipment.” No one was arrested in the operations, and police did not indicate how they knew that Deshommes was injured.
It was also reported that the raids would continue until the gangs and their main leader, Vitel’Homme Innocent, could be neutralized.
In a statement, the Kenyans, who lead the mission, called on Innocent to “stop committing atrocities against innocent Haitians.”
“(The mission) sends a strong warning to key gang leaders to stop the barbaric acts of rape, extortion, kidnapping, blackmail and murder,” they said.
Innocent has been sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations Security Council, and the United States is offering a $2 million reward for information leading to his capture.
In the United States he is accused of the armed kidnapping of 16 Christian missionaries in 2021, and for the murder of missionary Marie Franklin and the kidnapping of her husband in 2022.
In a recent video, Innocent appears next to an armored vehicle engulfed in flames that police officers were allegedly forced to abandon due to engine failure during one of their operations.
Innocent claimed that the gang gave the police no problems, and accused them of “hurting too many innocents.” He also said the gang has the power to decide who enters and who leaves the community it controls.
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