The Port-au-Prince region, which more than 33,000 people fled to try to escape gang violence, woke up Friday to charred corpses in its streets, after attacks by armed men and a police operation.
An AFP correspondent saw several remains in the city center of the capital and in Delmas, in its suburbs, at a time when the country is still awaiting the announcement of the composition of its future transitional authorities.
A resident for his part indicated having seen lifeless bodies in Pétion-Ville, also in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince.
On Friday, an uneasy calm reigned in the capital after a day marked by several attacks by armed men and a police operation which led to the death of a gang leader, Ernst Julmé, alias “Ti Grèg”. The latter escaped from prison at the beginning of March.
Some roads remained barricaded and very few vehicles were on the road. Most public administration offices kept their doors closed, as did schools and universities.
Banks and grocery stores were, however, open.
Internally displaced persons
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 33,000 people have fled the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in two weeks to seek safety from escalating gang attacks.
They mainly headed towards the departments of the Great South, which are already hosting 116,000 displaced people who have fled in recent months.
These “provinces do not have sufficient infrastructure and host communities do not have sufficient resources that can enable them to cope with these massive displacement flows coming from the capital,” said the IOM.
Many of these more than 33,000 people were already internally displaced, sometimes several times.
The United States, for its part, evacuated dozens of its nationals.
Haiti, which was already experiencing a deep political and security crisis, has been gripped by renewed violence since the beginning of the month, when several gangs joined forces to attack strategic locations in Port-au-Prince, saying they wanted to overthrow the first Minister Ariel Henry.
Very contested, the latter was unable to return to his country after a trip to Kenya. According to consistent sources, he is now in California, after leaving Puerto Rico.
Mr Henry agreed to resign on March 11. Since then, negotiations to form transitional authorities to lead the country have been underway.
But in the meantime, armed gangs are expanding their attacks in the capital, of which they already controlled some 80%.
Humanitarian aid
“Over the past few days, gangs have advanced into new areas of the capital,” Ulrika Richardson, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the country, said on Thursday, describing an “extremely alarming” situation.
More than 5 million people, or half the population, need humanitarian aid, she added.
The future presidential transitional council, the establishment of which was decided during an emergency meeting in Jamaica of several countries and organizations with Haitian representatives, is long overdue.
This body, which will be responsible for appointing an interim prime minister, must try to put the country back on the path to stability.
Haiti currently remains without a president or parliament: the last head of state, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021. And the country has not had any elections since 2016. Ariel Henry, appointed by Jovenel Moïse, should have left his duties at the beginning of February.
“Cutting the violence hitting Haiti will constitute a decisive test for the unity and sustainability of the new government,” wrote the think tank International Crisis Group.
“The new authorities should resume talks with foreign partners to accelerate the deployment of the multinational security mission” and, in the meantime, try to provide the necessary equipment to the police to try to regain control of the port and main highways , he added.
Kenya, which was to send a thousand police officers to Haiti as part of a UN-supported mission, announced that it was suspending this deployment in view of the chaotic situation.