By Steven Aristil and Mickenson Duverger
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Armed gangs launched a fresh attack on Haiti’s capital before dawn on Tuesday, killing residents in the Delmas 30 neighborhood and causing more residents to flee as gangs continue to operate unchecked in the Caribbean nation.
More than 1 million Haitians – close to 10% of the Caribbean’s most populous country – have been internally displaced due to a years-long conflict in which well-funded and broadly allied armed gangs have expanded and cemented their control over much of the capital and surrounding areas.
Police did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
“We haven’t slept since the day before yesterday because everyone was panicking,” said local resident Alex Josue, saying he believed around 15 people had been killed.
“I have a friend who sells meat at the Delmas 30 market and they burned him in front of his child,” he said. “A woman who lived very close to me was taken with her child, and they burned them.”
“I don’t know whether to go up or down, left or right,” added Josue. “Wherever the gangs go, we run.”
Local rights group RNDDH’s program director Rosy Auguste Ducena said her organization was not yet able to estimate a death count, but there were reports of several people being killed or shot at, and several houses set on fire.
“According to the information we’ve received, the armed gangs are on the rampage. They attack several areas at the same time, and it’s always the same modus operandi: murder, arson, gunshot wounds, rape, and so on,” Ducena said.
“Each time, the victims try to flee and find refuge in often unlikely places,” she added.
In Delmas 30, residents fled the scene carrying mattresses and other goods on their heads. One man pushed a corpse in a wheelbarrow.
A local resident, who asked not to be identified, said the area had been facing deadly attacks since 1 a.m. (0600 GMT), and appealed to Jimmy Cherizier, a former policeman who leads the Viv Ansanm gang coalition that is looking to become a political party.
“The population is fleeing, they don’t know where to go,” the person said. “What have we done to you?”
(Reporting by Steven Aristil, Mickenson Duverger and Harold Isaac; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
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