Pictures | Eight days of terror in Haiti

The civilian population is fleeing en masse, different places are under siege by armed gangs, shortages of basic necessities are being felt

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The security context in the metropolitan area has continued to deteriorate since the start of the violent gang offensive against state institutions on February 29.

The civilian population is fleeing en masse, different places are besieged by armed gangs, shortages of basic necessities are being felt.

Since then, places such as: Portail Léogane, rue Magloire Ambroise, the Salomon Market at the bottom of the city, have been the scene of clashes between the police and criminals.

On Thursday February 29, the police station in the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets was attacked by gangs, costing the lives of 6 police officers who requested reinforcements in vain for several hours.

The same day, several institutions were vandalized and looted.

This is the case of the National Old Age Office (ONA) in Shada, the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine (FAMV) as well as the premises of the Ministry of Agriculture (MARNDR) in Croix-des-Missions . There were also acts of vandalism in a school for special children in Alley Lane.

The sub-police station in this area was also prey to bandits who set it on fire.

Air transport is at a standstill throughout the country. Several companies such as Jet Blue, Air Transat and American Airlines have announced that they have suspended their flights following the attacks orchestrated on Toussaint Louverture international airport. Several planes were hit by projectiles.

Incredible acts of violence were recorded the following day, March 1, with the fire of the Vehicle Insurance Office Against Third Parties (OAVCT) in Tabarre, the looting followed by the fire of the mini-supermarket “La Province Market » at the corner of rue de l’Enterrement and rue Oswald Durand.

The panic continued throughout the day of March 2. In the evening, an extraordinary escape from the National Penitentiary prison, where notorious criminals were being held, took place.

Despite warnings of a possible offensive against the country’s largest prison center, this did not stop the attack from occurring.

Of approximately 3,687 prisoners held in this civil prison, only around a hundred would remain after the escape, including Colombian nationals involved in the assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse. Several prominent individuals charged in the case have fled.

Since this escalation of violence, around ten police stations have been destroyed, usual fixed points in the metropolitan area remain without any police presence.

On March 3, the Saint François de Sales hospital was not spared from the scenes of looting on Rue de l’Enterrement.

Other large hospitals face enormous difficulties in supplying medical inputs and an absence of nursing staff.

A group of demonstrators identifying themselves as sympathizers of the “Pitit Desalin” party and the “Fòs Kanapevè” group went in front of the Canadian embassy on the road to Delmas, on March 7.

Some of them threw burning tires into the embassy compound.

To date, no official report has been communicated by the government, which has simply decreed a curfew for one month in the West department.

Since February 29, citizens have been fleeing rue Cameau, lower Delmas, Portail Léogâne, rue Magloire Ambroise, etc. to take refuge elsewhere.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has already identified fifteen of the previous reception sites for internally displaced persons, which are completely emptied of their occupants.

On Friday March 8, 2024, the political turmoil seemed to have spared the streets of Port-au-Prince. The markets – like at Christ-Roi – were functioning. The vans were leaving and coming back. Life was getting back to normal…

In the vicinity of the Champ-de-Mars, an improvised bus parking lot could be seen. Usually, this station is located near the Sylvio Cator stadium.

Apparently, the city was coming back to life. But this is just an illusion. Misleading, certainly. Because the long lines at gas stations and water distribution points portend future shortages of fuel and drinking water.

Some supermarkets are also reporting unusual crowds: at Star 2000 on the road to Delmas, an impressive line can be observed on the afternoon of Friday March 8.

The political turmoil is accompanied by looting of numerous stores. Attacks on the country’s most important port, with the promise of probable famine – as reported by the NGO Mercy Corps, if nothing is done in the coming days to restore the functioning of these institutions.

Corpses – often charred – lie in certain streets. Like these two unburned feet, the only remaining witnesses of an ancient body – half consumed, still in the streets of Ruelle Rivière. “Two men arrived and executed him in the evening,” testifies a man to AyiboPost, still under the influence of the terror of the scene.

The police do not venture into the streets.

Streets left to criminals, believes Samuel Madistin, during an interview Thursday with AyiboPost. The lawyer, president of the Je Klere foundation, calls for a change of leadership in the Haitian national police and within the army in a context where political negotiations must determine the future.

A future that – according to the State Department – would not include the current Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, under whose administration the few institutions still standing in the country collapsed.

And the descent continues.

By Jean Feguens Regala et Jérôme Wendy Norestyl

Widlore Mérancourt contributed to this report.

Image de couverture : A soldier of the Armed Forces of Haiti (FADH) monitors the entrance to the airport in anticipation of the rumor concerning the possible return of Prime Minister Ariel Henry to Haiti, March 4, 2024. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost

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