Suspected Haiti gang members stoned, set on fire by crowd
An Associated Press reporter on the scene in Port-au-Prince counted 13 burning bodies in a street.
More than a dozen suspected gang members in Haiti were lynched and their bodies set on fire by residents of the capital Port-au-Prince, police and witnesses said, while the United Nations warned that insecurity in the city had “reached a level which is similar to that in countries”. in armed conflict”.
Haiti’s National Police said in a brief statement that officers in the city’s Canape Vert section stopped in town early Monday and searched a minibus for contraband and seized weapons from suspects before they were “unfortunately lynched by members of the the population”.
The statement did not address how members of the mob were able to take control of the suspects.
A witness who gave his name as Edner Samuel told The Associated Press news agency that members of the public took suspected gang members away from police, beat and stoned them before putting tires on them, pouring gasoline on them and setting them on fire.
An AP reporter on the scene counted 13 burning bodies in a street. Photos from Reuters and videos circulating on social media showed several bodies piled on the road, with smoking tires and other objects on top. People surround them and shout angrily. One person can be seen beating the lifeless bodies with a blunt object.
The gruesome killings followed days of clashes between gang members and security forces.
Gangs in Haiti have gone from strength to strength since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, with residents caught in the middle of it as large swathes of the capital and much of the countryside have been rendered lawless. Bloody gang battles have left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.
Criminal groups control about 80 percent of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, where some 200 gangs are estimated to operate with impunity.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged the immediate deployment of an international force to Haiti to stem escalating gang violence and the country’s worst human rights crisis in decades.
Guterres reiterated in a report to the UN Security Council that deploying an international force remains “critical” to help Haitian authorities curb violence and rights abuses, restore the rule of law and create conditions for national elections.
“Since the beginning of 2023, 22 police officers have been killed by gangs,” Guterres said. “These trends are expected to accelerate unless efforts are redoubled to urgently equip and train police, recruit new officers and improve working conditions to retain existing staff.”
“The human rights situation of those living in gang-controlled areas remains appallingly poor,” he said, pointing to murders, assaults, sexual assaults and rooftop snipers who regularly fire on people in their homes and on the streets.
In their pursuit of more territory, he said, gangs continued to use rape and other forms of sexual violence “to instill fear and control communities,” with women and girls being disproportionately affected.
The Security Council will discuss the report on Wednesday.