One Port-au-Prince district in Haiti has become a deathtrap after weeks of violence by rival gangs vying for terrirory. The smell of death is everywhere in the city’s notorious Cité Soleil slum.
Violence has soared since the assassination last year of President Jovenel Moise, which created a political vacuum that gangs have taken advantage of to expand control over territory.
The assassination ushered in a new wave of terror that the UN’s human rights chief recently said has hit “unimaginable and intolerable” levels. The country of 11 million remains in a political gridlock with elections delayed indefinitely.
According to the global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). thousands of people are trapped within the district without access to food or water, reports The Guardian.
“We are calling on all belligerents to allow aid to enter Brooklyn and to spare civilians,” said Mumuza Muhindo, the MSF’s head of mission in Haiti, in a statement referring to the contested area within the sprawling Cité Soleil.
“Along the only road into Brooklyn, we have encountered corpses that are decomposing or being burned,” Muhindo said. “They could be people killed during the clashes or people trying to leave who were shot.
“It is a real battlefield,” he said. “It is not possible to estimate how many people have been killed.”
According to the BBC, on Saturday, the United Nations said 234 people were killed or injured by gang violence from 8-12 July. “Most of the victims were not directly involved in gangs and were directly targeted by gang elements,” UN spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said.
To add to the extreme, and viotent situation in the island nation, the Varreux terminal, Haiti’s main fuel terminal suspended operations during a severe wave of gang violence last week.
The terminal is located in the rundown Cité Soleil area, the scene of battles between two rival gangs, and its closure has caused fuel shortages across the country. Many Haitians rely on gas to fuel the generators that power their homes and businesses because of the lack of electrical infrastructure.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, sexual violence, including gang rape of children as young as 10, has been used by armed gang members to terrorize and punish people living in areas controlled by rivals.
Kidnapping are now numbering at least three people per day, double the rate in 2021. For the first half of 2022, 551 cases of kidnapping were recorded, compared to 382 over the same period in 2021, according to data from the Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Haiti, shared exclusively with the Telegraph.
