In advance of the appointment of a transitional council that would usher in a new administration, armed gangs carried out further attacks on areas of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
A local media reported on April 21, 2024, that there was heavy shooting and arson in the city center.
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Loud explosions audible as far as the neighborhood’s municipal hall and automatic gunfire close to the National Palace have left the Lower Delmas region transformed into “a battlefield between police and armed gangs,” according to Radio Tele Galaxie on X formerly known as Twitter.
Social media users linked two voice recordings to gang boss Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier, claiming that he gave the order for his men to set fire to homes in Lower Delmas, a destitute neighborhood of the capital where he was raised.
“Continue burning the houses. Make everybody leave,” in the first audio clip, a man says. He mentions sending bottles of gasoline in another: “No need to know which house. Burn every house you find. Set the fire,” he says.
According to Radio RFM, gangs allegedly robbed the medical facilities of the State University of Haiti overnight, and there were also reports of attacks in the hillside district of Petion-Ville.
This is happening as the nation is ready to form a nine-member council to replace Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who announced his resignation on March 11 while trapped abroad and under pressure from the US.
The gangs in Haiti, many of which have united under the coalition known as “Viv Ansanm” (Living Together), have claimed that their siege of the capital is an effort to remove Henry, although attacks on the city have escalated since he made his statements.
Rights organizations calculate that gangs currently control almost 90% of the capital.
To guarantee Kenya’s leadership of a proposed security support force he asked for in 2022, Henry left the country at the end of February. Henry signed a reciprocal security agreement with Kenya despite Kenya’s willingness to head the force being derailed by local legal concerns.
Despite the force’s UN ratification late last year, things moved slowly and Henry’s departure, which was contingent upon a new administration, ultimately put a stop to the program.
The members of the transition council, who must provide documentation establishing their eligibility, are scheduled to take an oath of office at the National Palace by decrees issued by the government verifying a transition plan facilitated by the Caribbean Community.
However, throughout the last several weeks, assaults against the palace, as well as other public buildings and vital infrastructure like the capital’s airport, have increased. The installation has not been given an official date yet.
The situation for individuals who were forced to abandon their houses due to the violence was made worse by a warning from Haiti’s civil protection agency about potential flooding over southern areas of the nation, including the capital, owing to heavy rainfall.
Major ports and supply lines are still closed, resulting in an estimated 360,000 internally displaced people and millions of hungry people, according to U.N. estimates.
