The damage is considerable, according to some local residents interviewed on site by AyiboPost
On the afternoon of Sunday, March 24, 2024, columns of fire spread by heavily armed bandits ransacked infrastructure in the lower part of the city of Port-au-Prince.
More than a dozen warehouses stocking, among other things mattresses, as well as pharmacies and residential homes scattered around several streets near the palace and the National Penitentiary suffered the destructive ravages of the flames.
More than five arteries were hit by the fire, including Rue Monseigneur Guilloux, La Réunion, Rue du Centre and Rue de l’Enterrement, among others.
Not far from the National Palace, garages along Rue de la Réunion reduced to ashes by armed bandits. March 25, 2024. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
The damage is considerable, according to some local residents met and interviewed by AyiboPost.
On March 25, 2024, a man alerted the mechanics to save the only remaining vehicle in a garage.
Michel ran his mechanics business on Rue de la Réunion. After the onslaught of the flames, the man, visibly in his thirties, told AyiboPost that he suffered huge losses.
« I lost my tools, cars I repaired for customers and my merchandise, » he said.
On March 25, 2024, a mechanic tries to salvage parts from vehicles set ablaze by bandits the previous day.
Due to the insecurity, Michel had already left La Plaine in a hurry, where he had taken up residence to establish his quarters in the commune of Port-au-Prince.
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« The bandits have surrounded the area. They looted and took mattresses from the warehouses before setting them on fire, » he said.
The day after the fiasco, the air was thick with the smell of burning and a dreary desolation hung over the streets of the city centre.
The deserted streets make way for a spectacle of cars reduced to piles of charred scrap metal. The Rue de la Réunion paints a picture of a sea of homes swallowed up by wisps of smoke.
March 25, 2024: View of Rue de la Réunion where the bandits set fires, among other places, near the First Baptist Church of Port-au-Prince.
« The attack started around 4 or 5 o’clock in the evening, » according to a local resident interviewed by AyiboPost who, under fire, did not have time to reveal his identity to the newspaper.
Working in a carwash on Rue de la Réunion, the man lamented the untenable situation he is currently facing.
‘The fire took away everything I had. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to continue my activities, » he thunders, his throat knotted with a thinly veiled rage.
The streets next to the National Palace are also empty. A few residents from the area, on their own, lug a few car parts that defied the flames. A short distance away, other people, with suitcases packed on their heads, hurry to try to put miles between their families and the scene of yet another disaster, the subject of news in Port-au-Prince.
On March 25, 2024, citizens fled the lower part of Port-au-Prince due to the assault by armed bandits the day before.
The Frères Nau co-ed school, as well as several clinics and pharmacies near the hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH), suffered the wrath of the flames. The National School of Arts (ENARTS), one of the largest centers of art education in the country, appears to have been partially vandalized. AyiboPost tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with the institution’s officials.
Several vehicles were set on fire near Champ de Mars during the first attack on the police station in Port-au-Prince, on the evening of March 8, 2024.
This tragedy in downtown Port-au-Prince comes against a backdrop of recurrent attacks on neighborhoods and infrastructure by the ‘Viv ansanm’ coalition of gangs, led by former policeman Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier.
On March 8, 2024, thugs attempted to set fire to the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Communities (MICT) building, and the following day, flames were visible on part of the edifice.
Security forces blocked the streets around the National Palace, as noted by AyiboPost on March 9, 2024.
On March 25, 2024, citizens flee downtown Port-au-Prince due to the incendiary assault by armed bandits.
More than 33,000 people have fled their homes in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
By Jean Feguens Regala et Junior Legrand
Cover image: On March 25, 2024, mechanics came to retrieve the tools that remained following an assault by armed bandits on downtown Port-au-Prince the day before. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
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