(Port-au-Prince) Fourteen lifeless bodies were found Monday in a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince where gang members carried out attacks at dawn, at a time when Haitians are awaiting the establishment of transitional authorities whose finalization could be imminent according to the United States.
An AFP photographer counted 14 remains in Pétion-Ville, a town located in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince. Two residents said they had seen around ten of them, without being able to say under what circumstances these people had been killed.
But they claimed that “armed bandits” had been sowing terror since dawn in Laboule and Thomassin, two neighborhoods of Pétion-Ville. They attacked a bank, a gas station and private residences, they said.
“They came all hooded in their cars, on motorcycles, with their own ambulance, then they massacred the population of Pétion-Ville,” said Vincent Jean Robert, a resident.
PHOTO RALPH TEDY EROL, REUTERS
The discovery of the bodies attracted a crowd of curious people.
Among the vandalized houses is that of a judge at the Court of Auditors, who was able to narrowly evacuate the premises thanks to police intervention, one of his relatives told AFP.
The capital is 80% in the hands of gangs, accused of numerous abuses, in particular murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings for ransom.
Delay
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 as part of a fight against Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Very contested, the latter was unable to return to his country after a trip to Kenya. He announced his resignation last Monday, saying his government would manage current affairs until a presidential transition council is established.
At an emergency meeting in Jamaica the same day with representatives from Haiti, the UN and the United States among others, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and its partners charged political parties and the sector private Haitians to set up these transitional authorities.
But negotiations to form this body of seven voting members have fallen behind schedule, particularly due to internal dissensions.
After heated discussions, the members of the collective of December 21, the group which supported Ariel Henry, managed to agree on the name of former senator Louis Gérald Gilles to represent them on the council, indicated to the ‘AFP a source involved in the negotiations.
Talks between Haitian parties “are progressing well, with the fragility and challenges that can be expected with groups that have not necessarily had to choose a single representative in the past,” the Jamaican minister told reporters. of Foreign Affairs, Kamina Johnson Smith, after briefing the UN Security Council on Haiti during a closed-door meeting.
The US State Department said stakeholders in Haiti were “very close to finalizing the composition” of the council, saying it was “expecting news from them today.”
“It’s not impossible,” said M.me Johnson Smith. But “I wouldn’t put the cart before the horse.”
Mad Max
Kenya, which must deploy a thousand police officers in Haiti as part of a multinational security support mission, announced that it would suspend the sending of its men, but assured that it would intervene once a presidential council was installed. .
On Sunday, the curfew was extended until Wednesday in the West department, which includes Port-au-Prince.
Haitian national police carried out an operation Friday evening in the stronghold of a gang leader nicknamed “Barbecue” near Port-au-Prince that left several gang members dead, a union official said police officer at the AFP.
This weekend, the executive director of UNICEF described the situation in Haiti as “horrible” and “almost out of a scene of Mad Max », film which depicts a post-apocalyptic future.
The current situation “is the worst anyone has seen in decades,” said Catherine Russell on the American channel CBS.