Militias with weapons fight gangs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — These days, after the apocalypse, there is peace on the wide road passing near Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport. Where once vehicles and crowds of people used to gather, now plumes of smoke rise from smoldering garbage heaps, adding a bitter taste to the air.

An armored police vehicle wobbles nearby; Some police officers on duty cover their faces with balaclavas. The street appears almost abandoned, as if after some disaster, an experience that Port-au-Prince residents know better than most. But this time leaving town is not an option: the airport has been forced to close due to gangs.

Since the beginning of the month, criminal groups have attacked the last vestiges of the Haitian state with unprecedented coordination: airports, police stations, government buildings, the national penitentiary. It is the culmination of years of increasing gang control and popular unrest, whose combined attack in a surprise result forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign last week, but which failed to restore peace.

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Gangs in Port-au-Prince are limiting supplies of food, fuel and water throughout the city. Possibly the last functional part of the state, the Haitian National Police, is struggling to regain its ground street by street throughout the city. But the very life of the city they fight for is ebbing away as intense urban warfare strips away the most basic human bonds.

The social fabric is deteriorating and shops and schools are closed. Many residents are isolating themselves, afraid to leave their homes. Some people have resorted to caution. Fear, distrust and anger rule. Death is on everyone’s mind.

Vigilant Justice, approved by police

In the Canapé Vert neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the bustling streets are evidence of a strategy of maintaining order that was unimaginable at the time.

According to a local source, the indelible mark of extrajudicial execution – a thick, jagged strip of black soot crossing the sidewalk – is all that remains of hundreds of suspected criminals who died at the hands of residents, whose bodies were thrown into the flames. Was burnt in. Security.

Gangs have long troubled Port-au-Prince residents, but their reach has expanded dramatically in recent years; Today they cover 80% of the city, according to United Nations estimates. Seeing their city shrink, many Haitians in the region and beyond have banded together to form a vigilante movement called Bwa Kale,

The anti-gang movement has seen communities form neighborhood defense committees with shared fortifications, surveillance systems, checkpoints, and even patrols.

Your solidarity works. For example, in 2023, according to local sources and a February 2024 report by Switzerland-based Global, several residential areas in the city’s hills worked with local police to push back the TI Makak gang and eventually drive it out of the area entirely. removed. Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

But the line between rescue and popular justice is easily crossed. According to an October 2023 UN report, vigilante groups have beaten hundreds of people to death on suspicion of gang affiliation or committing “common crimes”.

Speaking to CNN in a car park next to a church, whose open door revealed that a wedding was going on, a militia member told CNN that his group had been barricaded by gangs to capture Canapé Vert. Repeated attempts had failed.

“Gangs work like this: They take over areas with big businesses and force them to pay while maintaining control,” he said, noting that the area includes two national telephone companies. There are many high-profile companies. Cell phone and an important hotel. The witness spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

He said, “We receive constant threats: They say they will come and attack us, that they will destroy the neighbourhood. So we have blocked the roads and the police are searching any civilian cars. Does not participate in the search.” , The militia, he said, is armed only with “knives and our bare hands.”

The police, for their part, have told CNN that they know and trust the militia well, and that one commander was tasked with defending the Canapé Vert police station from a particularly intense gang attack last spring. Credit given to the group. According to the commander, who requested anonymity for his safety, more than a dozen suspected gang members were killed and burned to death in front of the police station.

Refugee in his own city

Just a five-minute drive away, another community is desperately trying to hold together under even more difficult circumstances: a displaced persons camp, one of dozens of facilities across the city where thousands of city dwellers are forced to leave their homes. Gathering after being forced. House due to violence and arson.

Mary Morris, 56, noticed that a gang was moving closer to the area; On February 29, when news of an impending gang attack arrived, he wasted no time. He left all his belongings and ran with the rest of the people, walking for about an hour to seek refuge in the Argentine public school Bellegarde, as he says.

About three weeks later, the children fly kites made of aluminum foil and waste plastic, drive homemade toy cars cut from empty soda cans, with bottle caps for wheels and rocks for passengers.

Adults also exhibit normality, but with a sense of smallness. For example, they have elected a leader to liaise with local police and advocate for aid organizations to bring food and water, but little help has actually arrived due to blockades on roads across the city.

Maurice tries to keep his family’s small corner of the crowded place clean by washing the floors with water, which he manages to procure after a 20-minute walk. But no one in his family has enough space to eat or cook food; They live day after day on a shared meal or a bite of street food. He told CNN that even a mint can be considered food.

The day we met him, he had not eaten anything.

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Beyond the difficulty of daily survival, many displaced camp residents say they feel they have outstayed their welcome and relations with their neighbors are deteriorating. Clashes have erupted with locals eager to move away, fearing that the influx of outsiders will attract the attention of the gangs.

Anticipating the effects of diminishing resources and worsening violence, the International Organization for Migration has repeatedly warned of a rapidly growing “climate of mistrust” in Haiti that could destroy traditional safety nets. Social, will leave people with nowhere to go.

“High levels of insecurity are creating a climate of mistrust between some host communities and displaced populations, worsening social cohesion,” the organization said in an August 2023 report. friends and family.

The small school where Maurice lives is already far beyond its capacity. But every day more people from other parts of the city join them, putting a strain on the few resources available at the location: The building’s septic tank is full and the toilets are clogged, one resident told CNN. The water tank is almost dry.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 1,575 people currently live crowded in a network of open-air classrooms, barely a handful compared to the more than 360,000 displaced people throughout the country.

divided by fear

Port-au-Prince has been terrorized for years by frequent kidnappings, torture and rape at the hands of gangs. But today, as the Haitian elite discusses the composition of a transitional presidential council – and the international community still does not want to intervene – talk of a political solution seems more like an illusion than ever, while the sounds of gunfire ring out throughout the night. They keep resonating, which break the silence. from the city.

Meanwhile, the proliferation of police, gangs and civilian checkpoints is taking a toll on the Haitian capital, as are suspicious and worrisome conflicts. One thing that more and more people share is trauma.

Marie-Suzé St. Charles, 47, says her own children are so afraid of the continuing violence that they are unable to visit her at the hospital where she is recovering from the March 1 shooting in which she was shot while returning from work. He was attacked, due to which his leg was broken. ,

His 17-year-old son was also shot and is admitted to another hospital. Her other children, ages eight and thirteen, refuse to leave the house. He is not sure who feeds them.

“They’re afraid of the street,” he told CNN from his hospital bed. “They don’t even want to meet me. They’re afraid to even go out.”