Page 7 - aruba-today-20220523

A7
WORLD NEWS Monday 23 May 2022

Gangs strangle Haiti's capital as deaths, kidnappings soar

By EVENS SANON and that malnutrition is on the
DÁNICA COTO rise, affecting 1 in 5 children
Associated Press in the Cité Soleil neighbor-
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) hood alone.
— It was about 6 a.m. when "We are really seeing a
Venique Moïse flung open strangulation of Port-au-
the door of her house and Prince," he said, adding
saw dozens of people run- that UNICEF has been
ning — their children in one forced to use a helicopter
hand and scant belong- and now a boat to try to
ings in the other — as gun- reach those most in need.
fire intensified. Staff at hospitals and clin-
Minutes later, she joined ics report they're being
the crowd with her own stretched thin, with Doc-
three kids and fled as fires tors Without Borders noting
burned nearby, collaps- that it treated nearly 100
ing homes. Over the com- people for gunshot wounds
ing hours and days, the from April 24 to May 7, forc-
bodies of nearly 200 men, ing the aid group to reopen
women and children — a clinic in Cité Soleil it had
shot, burned or mutilated closed in early April be-
with machetes by warring cause of the violence.
gangs — were found in that Prime Minister Ariel Henry
part of Haiti's capital. "That A police officer patrols a street during an anti-gang operation in Croix-des-Missions, north of Port- has remained largely quiet
Sunday, when the war au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, April 28, 2022. Associated Press amid the escalating gang
started, I felt that I was go- violence, while Frantz Elbé,
ing to die," Moïse said. hospitals to close as they Associated Press, noting into wells and latrines. Haiti's new police chief,
Gangs are fighting each raid new neighborhoods, that gang clashes are be- Gangs posted pictures of said dozens of gang mem-
other and seizing territory seize control of the main coming protracted, ruth- the gruesome scenes on bers have been arrested
in the capital of Port-au- roads connecting the capi- less affairs. "We are talking social media to further ter- and another 94 killed in
Prince with a new intensity tal to the rest of the country about something that Haiti rorize people. The network clashes with police since he
and brutality. and kidnap victims daily, hasn't experienced be- said that most women and took over the department
The violence has horrified including eight Turkish citi- fore." At least 92 civilians girls were raped before be- six months ago. Nearly
many who feel the country zens still held captive, au- and 96 suspected gang ing killed. "Armed violence 5,000 suspects have been
is swiftly unraveling as it tries thorities say. members were killed be- has reached unimaginable accused of crimes includ-
to recover from the July 7 Gangs also are recruiting tween April 24 and May 16, and intolerable levels in ing murder and kidnap-
assassination of President more children than before, with another 113 injured, 12 Haiti," Michelle Bachelet, ping, Elbé said. "I am going
Jovenel Moïse and the arming them with heavy missing and 49 kidnapped the U.N. High Commissioner to continue to track down
United Nations prepares weapons and forming for ransom, according to for Human Rights, said in a the criminals," he pledged
to debate the future of its temporary alliances with the U.N. Office of the High May 17 statement. in a May 9 news confer-
longtime presence in Haiti. other gangs in attempts Commissioner for Human Bruno Maes, UNICEF's rep- ence, adding that Haiti's
Experts say the scale and to take over more territory Rights. The office warned resentative in Haiti, told the understaffed and under-
duration of gang clashes, for economic and political that the actual number AP that one growing con- resourced police depart-
the power criminals wield gain ahead of the coun- of people killed "may be cern is the lack of access to ment of roughly 11,000 of-
and the amount of territory try's general elections, said much higher." Haiti's Na- basic things like water, food ficers for a country of more
they control has reached Jaime Vigil Recinos, the tional Human Rights De- and medicine because than 11 million people
levels not seen before. United Nations' police com- fense Network said some people remain trapped in was receiving training and
Gangs have forced missioner in Haiti. victims were decapitated certain areas while gangs equipment from the inter-
schools, businesses and "It's astonishing," he told The while others were thrown continue to fight, noting national community.q