- Title: Gang violence in Haiti spirals out of control
- Date: 10th December 2019
- Summary: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (FILE - SEPTEMBER 21, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS, PEOPLE PROTESTING AND BURNING ITEMS PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (FILE - JANUARY 20, 2019) (REUTERS) A PROTESTER ARRESTED BY POLICE PROTESTER CHANTING PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (FILE - NOVEMBER 16, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) HAITI PRESIDENT, JOVENEL MOISE, SAYING: "Today the police are made up of around 15 thousand police. There are under 20 thousand officers. Can these police officers do their job normally? When we compare the size of the population with the number of police, no. We need more police officers to resolve problems of insecurity in the country." PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (FILE - JANUARY 29, 2019) (REUTERS) POLICE SHOOTING GUN GROUP OF POLICE OFFICERS
- Embargoed: 24th December 2019 20:20
- Keywords: Cite Soleil Haiti Port-Au-Prince President Jovenel Moise gangs protest violence
- Location: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
- City: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Topics: Government/Politics,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA003B9EB0AV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Venite Bernard's feet are shredded because she didn't have time to grab her sandals when she fled her shack in Haiti's most notorious slum with her four youngest children after hearing the gunfire of what sounded like an approaching gang.
Now her family and more than two hundred others fleeing violence sparked by the murder of a local gang leader are camping out in the courtyard of Cite Soleil's townhall. They would rather sleep on the ground at the mercy of the elements but feel safe than return home to an uncertain fate.
Violence has always been rife in Cite Soleil, a teeming seaside warren of shacks, alleys and open sewers in Port-au-Prince. But Mayor Jean Hislain Frederic, 46, told Reuters in a telephone interview it was the first time in his three years in office that people had taken refuge in the town hall.
Lawlessness in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has soared to its worst level since the end of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, according to civil society leaders. Armed groups have taken controls of swathes of Port-au-Prince in order to exact "protection" fees, making them no-go areas, and massacres are increasingly common.
Opposition leaders say President Jovenel Moise has lost control of the country - another reason he should resign. The president has faced a year now of mass protests.
Moise said in an interview with Reuters last month he was working on strengthening Haiti's police force of around 15,000 officers and had created a commission this year to get gang members to disarm and reinsert into society.
But the events in Cite Soleil may give bandits reason to think twice before doing so. Local gang chief Ti Hougan handed weapons over to the commission in March in exchange for promises of greater investment in the area and police protection.
Over two days, gangs killed at least 26 people, dismembering and burning their corpses, while police failed to intervene, according to a United Nations report. The RNDDH puts the tally at 71.
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