Residents of Haiti's Cite Soleil demand protection after gang violence displaces hundreds

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Residents of the Cite Soleil neighbourhood in Haiti's capital protested Tuesday, demanding government protection after gang violence forced hundreds of people to flee their homes over the weekend.

Roselaine Jean-Pierre, 67, was among two dozen people who gathered at an intersection in Cite Soleil holding tree branches and demanding that police intervene in the area, even as gunshots were ringing nearby.

"I did not do anything to deserve this," said Jean-Pierre, who fled her home on Sunday, and is now sleeping in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Some of the protesters said they saw people getting killed over the weekend in Cite Soleil, where burned cars and dead cows could also be observed. Haitian authorities have not released any information on casualties.

"I know of seven people that have been killed and also people that have been shot," said Michel-Ange Toussaint, who had returned briefly to her home in Cite Soleil to gather some clothes.

She said the attacks on civilians began Sunday around 6 p.m., prompting many people to flee the area in search of safety. "It is our good feet that saved us," Toussaint said.

Gangs have overtaken Port-au-Prince since the assassination of President Jovenal Moïse in July 2021 at his home. Police say they control about 70 per cent of the capital and have expanded their activities — including looting, kidnapping, sexual assaults and rape — into the countryside. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination.

In a statement released Monday, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders announced the evacuation of its hospital in Cite Soleil following the intense clashes Sunday.

The Centre Hospitalier de Fontaine, another hospital that operates in Cite Soleil, said on Tuesday that it had also suspended operations due to the outbreak of violence that began Sunday, and had to evacuate all of its hospitalized patients, including 11 newborns.

In April, the first foreign troops linked to a UN force arrived in Haiti to help quell ongoing violence.

The UN Security Council in late September approved a plan to authorise a 5,550-member force, which has not fully arrived in the island nation. An unknown number of troops from Chad have so far been deployed.

A report published earlier this year by the International Organization for Migration found that gang violence has displaced more than 1.4 million people in Haiti, with approximately 200,000 of them now living in crowded and underfunded sites in the nation's capital.

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