Families abandon their homes as gang takes over Haitian suburb

Record ID: 1717062

  • Title: Families abandon their homes as gang takes over Haitian suburb
  • Date: 24th March 2023
  • Summary: DIEGUE, PETION-VILLE, HAITI (MARCH 23, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRUCK CARRYING DISPLACED PEOPLE AND THEIR BELONGINGS ENTRANCE ARCH TO DIEGUE COMMUNE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LEAVING COMMUNE AND CARRYING THEIR BELONGINGS ON THEIR HEADS (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) RESIDENT, MARRIANE (FULL NAME NOT GIVEN), SAYING: “The reason I’m leaving is because I am old, I can't breathe - I can't, My heart beats too fast because they shoot too much. It’s got to the point where I can't eat.” VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LEAVING COMMUNE AND CARRYING THEIR BELONGINGS (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) RESIDENT, DIEUSEUL (FULL NAME NOT GIVEN), SAYING: “I'm not leaving yet. I resist. We’re helping our domestic worker to leave the commune because everybody in this house has already gone. There are no people on this street.” (REPORTER OFF-CAMERA: “What happens in this area?”) "The bandits come to this area quite often. When they come, they do damage – they kill people, they shoot a lot, there is a lot of detonation, and they search the inhabitants, even the pistachio sellers. They (gang members) take everything you have in your hands. Women have protection but men don't. They (gang members) kill, burn, set houses, cars, and other things on fire.” PERSON PASSING BY SCHOOL GROUP OF PEOPLE CARRYING BAGS WALKING DOWN STREET PERSON WALKING ALONG EMPTY STREET
  • Embargoed: 7th April 2023 16:34
  • Keywords: Haiti Petion-Ville Port-au-Prince gang violence
  • Location: DIEGUE, PETION-VILLE, HAITI
  • City: DIEGUE, PETION-VILLE, HAITI
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime,South America / Central America
  • Reuters ID: LVA001990424032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: With bags balanced on their heads and trucks loaded with belongings, families from a Port-au-Prince suburb left their homes on Thursday (March 23) to flee from gang violence ravaging the country.
    The streets of Petion-Ville commune emptied as a growing number of families fled from the violence unleashed nearly a week after the Vitelom criminal gang invaded big swaths of the suburb.
    A resident who decided to leave their home, Marriane, told Reuters that the insecurity became unbearable for her health.
    Local rights group RNDDH estimates gangs, not state security forces, now control all of the capital Port-au-Prince and more than half the country.
    At least 160,000 people in Haiti have been displaced in a crisis caused by increasing violence between heavily armed gangs, the United Nations said on Tuesday (March 21), estimating that over 530 people have been killed this year.
    The U.N. office said at least 208 people died during two weeks of brutal fighting at the start of March, with snipers implicated in shooting randomly at people in their homes or on the streets.
    (Production: Steven Aristil, Gloria Lopez, Anna Portella)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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