Gang violence displaces hundreds in Haiti’s capital

Residents of the Cite Soleil neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince have taken to the streets to demand government protection after a new surge of gang violence forced hundreds of people to flee their homes over the weekend.

Protesters said on Tuesday they had witnessed people being killed in Cite Soleil in recent days. Haitian authorities have yet to release any information on casualties.

Armed gangs have tightened their grip on Haiti’s capital since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his home in July 2021. Police say the groups now control about 70 percent of the capital and have expanded their activities, including looting, kidnapping and sexual violence, into rural areas. Haiti has not had a president since Moise’s killing.

Medical services have also been hit. In a statement released on Monday, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) said it had evacuated its hospital in Cite Soleil after intense clashes on Sunday. The Centre Hospitalier de Fontaine, another facility serving the area, said on Tuesday it had suspended operations because of the violence and had evacuated all of its patients, including 11 newborns.

The unrest comes as an international security mission, backed by the United Nations, begins to deploy. The first foreign troops linked to the UN-authorised force arrived in April to help quell the violence.

In late September, the UN Security Council approved a plan for a 5,550-member mission, although the full contingent has yet to arrive. An undisclosed number of troops from Chad have so far been deployed.

Gang warfare has already uprooted large numbers of Haitians. A report published earlier this year by the International Organization for Migration estimated that more than 1.4 million people have been displaced, with about 200,000 now living in overcrowded, underfunded sites in the capital.