(3 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – 02 May 2024
1. Various of displaced parents walking with their children
2. People displaced after being attacked by gang
3. Truck carrying mattresses
4. Burnt vehicle by the side of an empty street
5. People walking by burnt vehicles and blocked street
6. Various of people carrying their belongings on the street
7. Various of burnt houses after being looted by gangs
STORYLINE:
Gangs in Haiti laid siege to several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, burning homes and exchanging gunfire with police for hours as hundreds fled the violence early Thursday in one of the biggest attacks since Haiti’s new prime minister was announced.
The attacks began late Wednesday in neighborhoods including Solino and Delmas 18, 20, and 24, located southwest of the main international airport, which has remained closed for nearly two months amid relentless gang violence.
Tightly holding their children’s hands, families walked the streets all morning towards some of the already overcrowded shelters or friend’s and family’s homes in a safer part of the city.
People whose homes were spared in the attack clutched fans, stoves, mattresses, and plastic bags filled with clothes as they fled by foot, motorcycle, or on colorful small buses known as tap-taps.
Others walked empty-handed, having lost everything.
The neighborhoods that once bustled with traffic and pedestrians were like ghost towns shortly after sunrise, with a heavy silence blanketing the area.
An armored police truck patrolled the streets, rolling past charred vehicles and cinderblock walls.
The attack occurred in an area controlled by Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue, the leader of a powerful gang federation known as G9 Family and Allies.
He and other gang leaders have been blamed for coordinated attacks that began on Feb. 29 across the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Gunmen have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport, and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
The attacks eventually forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign and led to the creation of a transitional presidential council whose majority unexpectedly announced a new prime minister on Tuesday: Fritz Bélizaire, a former sports minister.
With new leaders taking charge of the country, Haitians are demanding that they prioritize their safety as gangs remain more powerful and better armed than Haiti’s National Police.
AP video shot by Pierre Luxama
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