A growing number of civilians and police officers are demanding the dismissal and arrest of Haiti’s police chief as heavily armed gangs launched a new attack in the capital of Port-au-Prince, seizing control of yet another police station early on Saturday.
Armed men raided the coastal community of Gressier in the western tip of Port-au-Prince late on Friday, injuring people, burning vehicles and attacking homes and other infrastructure as scores of people fled into the nearby mountains following a barrage of gunfire overnight.
It was not immediately known if anyone died.
Photo: AP
Videos posted on social media showed people fleeing into the early dawn, balancing bags and suitcases on their heads as men carrying heavy weapons celebrated with gunfire.
“The town is ours,” said one man who filmed himself with others who were armed, saying that they were in Gressier. “We have no limits.”
The attack comes about a week after gang attacks in central Port-au-Prince forced more than 3,700 people to flee their homes.
“The situation is critical and catastrophic,” said Garry Jean-Baptiste, a spokesman for the SPNH-17 police union.
He called Haitian National Police Director-General Frantz Elbe incapable and incompetent.
“Monsieur Elbe has failed,” Jean-Baptiste said.
The union wants a newly installed transitional presidential council to demand Elbe’s resignation and order justice officials to launch an investigation into the crisis, Jean-Baptiste said.
“Police continue to lose their premises and equipment and officers,” he said, adding that at least 30 police stations and substations have been attacked and burned in the past few months.
He also accused Elbe and other high-ranking officials of being complicit with gangs.
Elbe did not immediately return a message for comment.
Jean-Baptiste said the officer who was stationed in Gressier “resisted for a while,” but was unable to stave off the gang attack given a lack of staff and resources.
“The police could not prevent the worst,” he said.
The attack was planned by gunmen who came from the neighboring communities of Village de Dieu, Martissant and Mariani, Jean-Baptiste said.
Gressier is in an area controlled by Renel Destina. Best known as “Ti Lapli,” he is a leader of the Grand Ravine gang and considered a key ally of Izo, another powerful gang leader, the UN has said.
The Grand Ravine gang has about 300 members and is accused of killings, kidnappings, rapes and other crimes.
Those fleeing Gressier now join more than 360,000 other Haitians who have been forced to abandon their homes as gangs raze communities in rival territories to control more land. Tens of thousands of Haitians have squeezed into squalid, makeshift shelters, including schools and government buildings abandoned due to gang violence.
The violence surged starting on Feb. 29, when gangs launched coordinated attacks. Gunmen have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed since March 4 and raided Haiti’s two biggest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.
A UN-backed deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti has been repeatedly delayed, although some believe the first officers might arrive late this month.
Scores of US military planes have been landing at the shuttered airport in Port-au-Prince in the past few weeks, carrying civilian contractors, life-saving supplies, building materials and heavy equipment ahead of the anticipated arrival of a multinational mission.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to