Haiti police seized firearms and cleared roadblocks in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood controlled by a notorious gang leader, authorities said on Saturday, as a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) aid containers stocked with “essential items for maternal, neonatal and child survival” was looted.
National police units entered the Delmas neighborhood on Friday evening with the aim of unblocking a road, said Lionel Lazarre of the Haitian police union.
Several “bandits” were killed, he said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Officers exchanged gunfire with men from Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier’s gang, seized firearms and succeeded in unblocking roads, police said in a later statement.
“New strategies are being implemented by the police with the aim of recovering certain areas occupied by these armed gangs in recent days, in order to facilitate the free movement of peaceful citizens,” the statement said, without providing details.
Another operation was under way on Saturday morning as law enforcement personnel attempted to regain control of the capital’s main port, where gangs had looted several containers, a source at the port said.
The Port-au-Prince port has been shut since March 7 because of the violence.
Haiti is struggling to resolve a long-running political and humanitarian crisis that UNICEF has said is causing record hunger and life-threatening malnutrition in parts of Port-au-Prince.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry last week said he would step down once a transitional council was in place.
Heavily armed gangs have taken over much of the city, and rights groups have reported widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence.
UNICEF said one of its 17 containers had been looted at the Port-au-Prince port, where it said 260 humanitarian-owned containers were controlled by armed groups.
“Looting of supplies that are essential for life saving support for children must end immediately,” UNICEF representative in Haiti Bruno Maes said in a statement. “This incident occurs at a critical moment when children need them the most.”
The supplies in the looted container included resuscitators and related equipment, UNICEF said.
The agency said that three out of four women in the Port-au-Prince area do not have access to basic healthcare and nutrition.
Meanwhile, about 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, and more than 4 million require food aid, sometimes eating only once a day or nothing at all, aid groups say.
“Haiti is facing a protractive and mass hunger,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, Haiti director for the UN World Food Program.
Croix-des-Bouquets, in the eastern part of Haiti’s capital, “has malnutrition rates comparable with any war zone in the world,” he said.
Bauer and other officials said that, aside from aralyzing the main port, gangs are blocking distribution routes.
The World Food Program’s warehouse is running out of grains, beans and vegetable oil as it continues to deliver meals, he said.
“We have supplies for weeks. I’m saying weeks, not months,” Bauer said. “That has me terrified.”
Additional reporting by AP
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