More than a dozen people have been lynched and burned alive in the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, after a large number of citizens interrupted an arrest by the Haitian National Police against suspected gang members.
As reported by the Police, in statements collected by the Alter Presse agency, the agents stopped a van in which the armed men were allegedly traveling, and were in the middle of the arrest when the civilians who gathered around them intervened and put an end to the life of the alleged gang members.
The aforementioned agency, citing witnesses to the event, put the number of deaths at fourteen, although the authorities have not confirmed an exact figure. Witnesses have also detailed that civilians assaulted the deceased and doused them with gasoline before setting them on fire.
Port-au-Prince has experienced a spike in violence in recent months. The deputy spokesman for the United Nations Secretary General, Farhan Haq, denounced this Monday that the violence “has reached alarming levels.”
“According to our humanitarian partners, between April 14 and 19, clashes between rival gangs have caused the death of about 70 people, including 18 women and at least two minors, and another 40 people have been injured,” he said. detailed.
The coordinator of Humanitarian Actions in Haiti for the UN, Ulrika Richardson, reiterated in a statement “the importance of guaranteeing access for humanitarian aid, as well as protection and respect for health, education and critical infrastructure, including the water supply”.
The recent political and humanitarian crises in Haiti have left nearly five million people, half the country’s population, in acute famine. A panorama that has worsened as a result of the territorial war between a coalition of gangs that takes place in the region.
