PORT-AU-PRINCE — The Viv Ansanm gang coalition launched a coordinated offensive across five neighborhoods of Haiti’s capital Sunday, killing at least 31 people and displacing an estimated 12,000 residents in the deadliest single day of violence since the transitional government took power.
The attacks targeted the communes of Cite Soleil, La Saline, Tabarre, Delmas and Croix-des-Bouquets simultaneously, suggesting a level of logistical coordination that UN officials said indicated outside logistical support. At least four police stations were overrun and partially burned. The national police commissioner confirmed that 14 officers were killed and 22 wounded in the attacks.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé convened an emergency session and requested an accelerated deployment of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission, which has been delayed by funding shortfalls. The UN mission said it could not confirm whether its personnel were targeted, but that operations in affected areas had been suspended.
The gang coalition, which controls roughly 80% of the metropolitan area, issued a statement saying the offensive was a “response to state aggression” — without elaborating. The transitional government has denied any recent security operations in the targeted neighborhoods.
Diego Vargas, Media Hook’s Latin America correspondent, is based in Port-au-Prince.
Written by Diego Vargas, Latin America Correspondent