“It was a massacre”breathes Maurice, a French citizen in his thirties, who has lived in Haiti for two years and did not want to give his last name. This thirty-year-old Martinican had to hastily leave his apartment in Delmas, a residential town in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital, on Tuesday, November 19. During the night of Monday to Tuesday, particularly violent clashes took place in his district of Bourdon and in the neighboring city of Pétion-Ville, between members of the gangs that control 80% of the agglomeration of 4 million inhabitants, the police and the Bwa Kale groups. , self-defense militias formed by local residents.
That night, the police intercepted “two bandit trucks” in this sector until now relatively spared from violence, continues the Martinican, who says he has “I heard explosions” near your house. Several suspected gang members were killed at the scene by police during the Monday night operation. Others then tried to flee on foot, but those who were captured by the population were lynched. On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Haitian national police reported the deaths of 28 bandits.
Near the Royal Oasis hotel, a four-star establishment in Pétion-Ville, “Burnt corpses, cut with machetes, scattered on the groundMaurice testifies. “We had to flee”. With some acquaintances, the thirty-year-old took refuge for the first time. “in the mountains above Port-au-Prince”before taking a helicopter on Wednesday to Cap-Haitien, the large city in the north of the country, safer than the capital. In the eyes of the survivor, the current situation is more serious than during the first outbreak of violence that Port-au-Prince experienced at the beginning of the year, when several gangs joined forces to overthrow the government. “The fighting took place in the disadvantaged areas of the lower part of the city.explains. [Maintenant,] Everyone is trapped in Port-au-Prince. »
“Worsening situation”
In the Haitian capital, violence and impunity have been part of daily life for several years, but, according to the report published on Wednesday by the United Nations, the week of November 11 was a nightmare throughout the city. “At least 150 people have died, 92 have been injured and some 20,000 have been forced to flee their homes in the last week”explained the UN in a press release. “The recent outbreak of violence in the Haitian capital is a sign that the situation is getting worse”Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, cited in this press release, is concerned.
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