Haiti’s security climate has deteriorated significantly in recent days. Clashes between armed gangs took place in several neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. These acts have even spread to other neighborhoods that were, until then, less affected by the insecurity raging in the country.
With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Marie Andre Belange
Bel Air, Solino, Delmas 24, Nazon… For the past week, the neighborhoods located in the heart of Port-au-Prince have been living to the rhythm of the violence of armed gangs.
Rival gangs clash and some residents have had to flee their homes to escape the fury of the gangs without knowing where to take refuge. Not just in Port-au-Prince. Shots were also reported in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets.
During the weekend, the Bel Air sector was again shaken by the detonations of firearms. The acts of the bandits have even spread to upscale places in Haiti. Gangs break into homes and abduct residents. In Fort Jacques, a historic and tourist site in the country, armed men set fire to the sub-police station in the area.
In the center of the Haitian capital, cases of kidnappings are also accumulating. A schoolgirl and her father were abducted Thursday outside the main gate of a school as he was dropping off his daughter at school. A teacher, his wife, child and two other people accompanying them were also kidnapped on the same day.
Clashes between armed gangs in the neighborhoods of the Haitian capital have caused the displacement of many families. Haitians live in the greatest anxiety, fearing stray bullets from bandits.
According to several Haitian civil organizations, criminal groups now control the entire capital. Last October, the provisional government called for the intervention of a foreign military force in the country. But instead of responding to this request, the international community is multiplying promises and gestures to strengthen the national police of Haiti. “ The gangs are gaining ground, they are getting stronger. So the more time we lose, the more difficult it will be for the Haitian police to restore order, says Maître Gédéon Jean, who directs the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Haiti. Today, the international must take the necessary decision. I am speaking in particular of France, the United States and Canada, which are the first to decide on the situation in Haiti. They have a responsibility to restore security. And I take up this sentence from Emmanuel Macron: “Security is above all a question of means and not of postures.” We need men on the ground, an international force to accompany the police to carry out operations. And not promises and conferences. »