Gang wars in Haiti intensify after armed men burn down ‘a church’!

On Wednesday, heavy gunfire echoed throughout downtown Port-au-Prince as suspected gang members set a church on fire and attempted to assassinate their opponents in an attempt to gain control of more territory. The fierce fighting broke out just blocks from the government’s National Palace and Haiti’s National Penitentiary, where hungry inmates attempted to revolt because they believed gang members were on their way to release them, according to Government Commissioner Jacques Lafontant.

‘There is no mutiny or invasion,’ he said, adding that police are working to bring the area back to order. ‘ With their inadequate equipment and a scarcity of resources, that could take a couple of days.’ The once-bustling downtown area of Port-au-Prince has become increasingly dangerous and deserted as violence escalates between the G9 gang coalition and other gangs vying for control of the area. In one social media post, men claiming to be G9 members filmed a man they allegedly killed in the midst of the fighting and laid several firearms on his naked body.

Bullets have been flying into nearby residential areas and businesses as a result of the recent increase in violence in the downtown area, injuring at least one person. ‘ In less than a week, multiple bullets have been recovered in the courtyard as well as in classrooms,’ said the State University of Haiti in a statement on Wednesday. Firefighters were putting out a fire that had partially burned a transitional church built near the Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, which had been destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. Following the assassination of President Jovenel Mose on July 7, 2021, gangs have grown in power.

Last month, one gang took control of a portion of Haiti’s Court of First Instance, and on Tuesday, another gang set fire to a courthouse in Croix-des-Bouquets, which is located just northeast of Port-au-Prince. Furthermore, the United Nations reported that more than 470 people were killed, injured, or disappeared in less than a week during recent turf wars in the nearby Cite Soleil slum. The United Nations has urged the international community to assist Haiti’s National Police in combating crime and violence, even as the United States and other countries continue to train officers and provide resources to the roughly 12,800 police officers who serve a country of more than 11 million people.