Heavy gunfire on Thursday paralyzed Haiti’s capital and at least four police officers were slain as a gang leader announced that he would try to capture the country’s police chief and government ministers.
The move came during the absence of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is in Kenya trying to finalize details for the deployment of a foreign armed force to Haiti to help combat gangs.
Gunmen shot at Haiti’s main international airport and other targets, including police stations.
Photo: AP
At least four police officers, including two women, were killed in an attack on a station near the community of Canaan, a police union said.
The violence forced the airport, businesses, government agencies and schools to close as parents and young children fled through the streets. At least one airline, Sunrise Airways, suspended all flights.
Jimmy Cherizier, known as “Barbecue” and leader of the gang federation G9 Family and Allies, was seen in a recorded video announcing that the aim was to tie up the police chief and government ministers, and prevent Henry from returning to Haiti.
“With our guns and with the Haitian people, we will free the country,” Cherizier said.
A spokesman for the prime minister’s office could not be immediately reached for comment.
The head of Haiti’s National Police, Frantz Elbe, and police spokesman Garry Desrosiers did not return messages for comment.
Armored vehicles patrolled empty streets in downtown Port-au-Prince, while others were stationed near gang-controlled slums.
Residents in some neighborhoods, including Canape Vert and Turgeau, set up roadblocks to prevent gangs from entering as men who were not wearing uniforms stood by with machine guns.
Pierre Alex Boucher, a math teacher who lives in downtown Port-au-Prince, said he heard heavy gunfire before dawn.
Several hours later, as the gunfire continued, he stood on his roof and said he saw police in an armored vehicle fighting gang members before abruptly leaving.
The shooting then worsened, and when he saw what he said were teenagers with machine guns, he fled his home, feeling that his life was in danger.
“The area is completely invaded by gangs,” Boucher said of his neighborhood. “A lot of people couldn’t make it out, and some locked themselves inside their homes.”
He said he spoke with friends who saw people who had been shot to death.
“The country has to revolt against the gangs,” he said. “No one is safe.”
It was not clear whether Cherizier had the backing of other major gangs, which are estimated to control up to 80 percent of Haiti’s capital.
Diego Da Rin, with the International Crisis Group, said that Cherizier in his speech referred to a coalition called Viv Ansanm, which means “living together” in Haitian Creole.
It remains to be seen whether Cherizier truly has the support of other gang leaders, Da Rin said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS