Police and civilian self-defence groups killed 28 alleged gang members in Port-au-Prince in an overnight operation, authorities said Tuesday, as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was suspending operations in the Haitian capital.
As the government seeks to regain some control of the violent, chaotic city, MSF warned that the forces of law and order have become a “direct threat”, even as gang members pressed on with attacks on some districts.
Reminiscent of previous bloody vigilante reprisals against the country’s gangs, an Agence France-Presse photographer saw people burning the bodies of the alleged gang members in the street, with tires piled atop of them and set alight.
Officers stopped a truck they said was carrying gang members in the wealthy suburb of Petion-Ville at about 2am Tuesday, while a bus ferrying gang members was intercepted in the city centre, Haitian National Police spokesman Lionel Lazarre said.
Police opened fire, killing 10, and then chased down those who fled with the help of self-defence groups, formed by residents opposed to the gangs and their violent rule over swathes of the country.