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Armed gangs controlling Port-au-Prince, mass civilian displacement, and the failure of international stabilization efforts
Residents of the Cite Soleil neighborhood in Port-au-Prince protested Tuesday, demanding government protection after a weekend of gang violence forced hundreds from their homes, shuttered two hospitals, and left an unknown number of people…
3 MIN READResidents of Cite Soleil, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, protested Tuesday demanding police protection after gang violence forced hundreds of people to flee their homes over the weekend, the Associated Press reported.
3 MIN READA surge in gang violence across Haiti’s capital over the weekend forced hundreds of people from their homes, scattered families, and prompted the evacuation of a hospital run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders after more than…
3 MIN READA federal jury in Miami convicted four men on Friday of conspiring to kill or kidnap Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, the 2021 assassination that plunged the Caribbean nation deeper into turmoil, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.…
3 MIN READHundreds of people fled new gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, over the weekend, scattering families along roads leading to the country’s main airport, residents said Monday. In a statement released Monday, Doctors Without Borders…
3 MIN READHaiti’s new UN-backed gang-fighting force has received more pledges than the 5,500 members it is seeking, with Chadian troops already deployed in Port-au-Prince, the U.N. special envoy said after briefing the U.N. Security Council.
3 MIN READHundreds of migrants, most of them from Haiti, left Tapachula, Mexico, on foot Tuesday, but many said they no longer see the United States as a realistic destination. They described difficulties getting responses on asylum claims while waiting in the southern border city and said they were instead aiming for large Mexican cities where they could work and seek protection.
Southern Haiti’s Marigot mayor appealed for central government help after a gang attack in Seguin left seven people dead and a police station set on fire, according to the Associated Press. Marigot Mayor René Danneau said the victims were young men who worked alongside police to gather information. He criticized authorities for not responding quickly enough and asked the prime minister to take “all necessary measures.”
The first foreign troop tied to a new UN-backed gang-suppression force has arrived in Haiti, according to a statement posted by the force. A team from Chad and the force’s special representative, Jack Christofides, entered Port-au-Prince as officials discussed the partnership with Haiti’s prime minister.
Haiti’s National Police said officers backed by Kenyan police in a U.N.-supported mission helped rescue people after a renewed gang attack in the central town of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite. Human rights activists and a local activist group said at least 30 people were killed and that dozens more were missing after the gang attacked the Jean-Denis neighborhood.
Violence erupted early Sunday in Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite, Haiti, when the Gran Grif gang fought with a vigilante group, regional officials confirmed to The Associated Press.
Haiti has a chance to curb escalating gang violence with a U.S.-initiated international force that is starting to deploy and with a prime minister who has pledged alternatives for young people, the United Nations’ human-rights expert on Haiti said Monday.
Families of two Haitian journalists kidnapped last week in Port-au-Prince asked Monday for information about their whereabouts, with some relatives fearing gangs had killed them. The two reporters, Junior Célestin of Radio Télévision Megastar and Osnel Espérance of Radio Uni FM, were taken while working in an area controlled by the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, according to Radio Uni FM.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 16 (AP) — The families of two Haitian journalists who were reported kidnapped last week pleaded Monday for information about them, with many fearing gangs had killed them. The journalists, Junior Célestin of Radio Télévision Megastar and Osnel Espérance of Radio Uni FM, were taken in downtown Port-au-Prince on Friday, Radio Uni FM said.
Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys in Miami delivered opening statements Tuesday in the trial of four men accused of conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who was killed at his home near Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin told the jury the case was not complicated: the defendants wanted to seize power and get rich.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s National Police chief said authorities are working on a plan to safely hold general elections this year, despite continued gang violence. Interim police chief André Jonas Vladimir Paraison told The Associated Press that the election plan is still being prepared and that he could not provide more details. The government has said it aims to hold general elections in late August with a runoff in early December.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they found the bodies of at least four decapitated women near their border with Haiti and are investigating the deaths. Police spokesman Diego Pesqueira said the victims were Haitian and that Dominican authorities are investigating only one case because just one body was found on the Dominican side of the border. He said investigators believe the women were killed and then thrown into a river that carried the bodies across where they were later discovered.
The Haitian presidential transition council voted to dismiss Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, according to council members who announced the decision at a news conference Friday, two weeks before the panel is due to step down. The move comes as Haiti faces rising gang violence and mounting pressure to hold general elections, with provisional dates set for August and December.
The U.S. warned Haiti’s transitional presidential council against making changes that could destabilize the country’s government, saying it would consider taking “appropriate measures” if such steps back initiatives favoring gangs. The warning came as pressure grew for the council—an unelected body overseeing the transition—to move toward elections ahead of a Feb. 7 deadline.
The United States warned Haiti's transitional council against making changes that would destabilize the government, threatening to take action against those who support such moves. The warning came as the unelected council faces pressure to move toward elections for the first time in a decade, with its mandate scheduled to end Feb. 7.
AP videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama described filming a tactical police patrol in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 20 when gang members attacked, setting an armored vehicle’s roof ablaze with Molotov cocktails. Luxama said the smoke filled the vehicle and spread quickly, and officers returned fire as civilians and police rushed to extinguish the flames.
