Residents of Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, took to the streets Tuesday to demand government protection after gun battles and killings during weekend gang violence forced hundreds of people to flee their homes, the Associated Press reported.
Roselaine Jean-Pierre, 67, was among a group of around two dozen protesters at an intersection in Cite Soleil. AP reported that the protesters held tree branches and called on police to intervene, even as gunshots rang nearby. Jean-Pierre said she fled her home on Sunday and was now sleeping in the streets of the capital, adding, “I did not do anything to deserve this.”
Some protesters said they saw people killed over the weekend in Cite Soleil, where AP reported they also observed burned cars and dead cows. Haitian authorities have not released any information on casualties, AP said.
Michel-Ange Toussaint told AP that she knew “of seven people that have been killed and also people that have been shot.” AP reported that Toussaint had returned briefly to her home in Cite Soleil to gather clothes. She said the attacks on civilians started Sunday around 6 p.m., prompting people to flee in search of safety, and she said, “It is our good feet that saved us.”
The violence has extended across Port-au-Prince since the assassination of President Jovenal Moïse in July 2021 at his home, AP reported. Police say they control about 70% of the capital, down from 90%, and AP reported that they have expanded activities into the countryside, including looting, kidnapping, and sexual assaults and rape. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination.
Humanitarian agencies and local health providers also reported disruptions tied to the weekend clashes. In a statement released Monday, Doctors Without Borders said it evacuated its hospital in Cite Soleil after intense fighting, AP reported. The Centre Hospitalier de Fontaine said Tuesday that it suspended operations due to the outbreak of violence that began Sunday and evacuated all of its hospitalized patients, including 11 newborns.
AP said the crisis has continued even as the international response arrives in stages. In April, the first foreign troops linked to a U.N. force arrived in Haiti to help quell ongoing violence, AP reported. The U.N. Security Council had approved in late September a plan to authorize a 5,550-member force that has not fully arrived, and AP reported that an unknown number of troops from Chad have been deployed.
In a separate data point about the broader displacement crisis, AP reported that a report published earlier this year by the International Organization for Migration found that gang violence has displaced more than 1.4 million people in Haiti, including about 200,000 living in crowded and underfunded sites in the capital.