Solino, houses burned by bandits. © Ayibopost
by Widlore Mérancourt & Jérôme Wendy Norestyl, Ayibopost, Nov. 19, 2024
The security guard thought it was a "coup d'état."
For him, this was the only explanation for the sustained detonations heard in the Bourdon Valley early on Tuesday, November 19.
But a few moments after the shooting began, three young people rushed into the entrance to Garnier, just two minutes from the Villa d'Accueil, the Haitian government's workspace.
The youths, two of them heavily armed, stare at the security guard posted at the entrance to Garnier. The latter remains stoic, the attackers move on.
"I quickly understood that they were bandits," the security guard told AyiboPost. According to his estimates, the youngest of the team was perhaps eight years old, and the other two were twelve and thirty respectively.
The security guard raises the alarm.
Within minutes, his colleagues, the police and the neighborhood brigade were on the trail of the fugitives.
Around thirty bandits were killed in this morning clash, according to Lionel Lazarre, a police spokesperson interviewed by AyiboPost.
The police also seized three Kalashnikovs, a generator, a drone and several hundred projectiles.
According to the police, the bandits, transported in two vehicles, were going to Pétion-Ville when they were intercepted by the police.
The security guard, armed with a hunting rifle, caught one of the attackers along with other members of the population.
When questioned, the child, who was unarmed, said he came from Village de Dieu. He was, according to him, "sent on a mission" to Pétion-Ville and Delmas by a commander called Didier or Didi.
The crowd killed the child and set fire to his body, according to two witnesses interviewed by AyiboPost.
Another group of bandits, besieged in Djobel, a town near the Bourdon Valley, opened fire on the population.
Two citizens were killed on the spot and at least one other was taken to hospital, according to a witness.
Around four in the morning, the police began searching every house in the Valley for the bandits.
Neighbouring areas such as Canapé Vert and Turgeau are also taking part in the hunt for bandits in a capital in turmoil a few days after a new Prime Minister and his cabinet took office.
This failed attack, attributed by the police to Viv Ansanm – led by Jimmy Cherizier – illustrates the ambition of the most important gang group in Haiti.
The former policeman turned gangster called yesterday for the departure of the Presidential Transitional Council in a video.
Three members of the Council, chaired by Leslie Voltaire of Fanmi Lavalas, are implicated in a corruption scandal, according to a report by the Anti-Corruption Unit released in October.
The Council wanted a cabinet reshuffle, which was rejected by former Prime Minister Garry Conille.
Conille was replaced by businessman Alix Didier Fils Aimé this November.
Viv Ansanm had launched an attack of rare violence against public institutions. They closed the airport and broke the two largest prisons in Port-au-Prince, freeing thousands of detainees in March.
The then Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, was forced to resign.
In June, a contingent of Kenyan police arrived in Haiti with the mission of helping local law enforcement restore order.
Five months later, the bandits continue their attacks on the population.
At least 700,000 citizens are displaced in Haiti. More than 1,740 people have been killed or injured from July to September 2024, according to the United Nations.
At least three planes were hit by gunfire near Toussaint Louverture International Airport last week, forcing U.S. authorities to ban flights from the United States to Haiti for a month.
This ban and the paralysis of the airport further isolate Haiti, a country where the majority of local consumption comes from abroad, in a context where the most important port is regularly attacked by bandits.
Weapons, mostly American according to a recent report by US authorities, are allowing gangs to paralyze the country.
Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, told AyiboPost.the bandits are "terrorists".
Espérance calls on the new government to equip the police and to put the sovereign institutions back into operation.
"Every time the police arrest bandits, they are released by the justice system, which plays an important role in the gangsterization of the country," says the human rights defender.
Insecurity extends outside the capital.
On October 10, members of the Kokorat san ras gang, operating in La Croix-Périsse, kidnapped two government employees.
On November 6, members of this gang attacked the Estère Congregational Presbyterian School, killing one person and wounding at least two others with gunfire.
At least 700,000 citizens have been displaced and more than 1,740 people have been killed or injured from July to September 2024, according to the United Nations.
Since October 10, the Canaan gang has been attacking the town of Arcahaie, forcing more than 21,000 people to flee the area.
One of the most violent assaults on this area began on Saturday, October 26.
According to Jelin Esaï Jules, a former community leader in the area,.Solino was coveted because it offers access to other Port-au-Prince localities such as Nazon and part of Delmas.
Jules had to flee Solino in August to emigrate to the United States because of the attacks. His father died in September 2023, on the sidelines of one of these assaults.
Jules' house was also set on fire by gangs in November, forcing his mother and several family members to flee.
The bandits set fire to hundreds of houses, according to aerial images obtained by AyiboPost. Several citizens and at least one police officer were murdered in the process
On October 23, the local humanitarian organization Comité Central, coordinated by Genson Jean Baptiste, counted 10,000 displaced people in different camps for AyiboPost.
In a report released on November 8, the United Nations estimated the number of displaced people at 12,619 in Solino, Tabarre and Fort National.
The 27-year-old security guard was shot on August 27 while trying to defend Solino.
“I was chasing the bandits with the police,” he told AyiboPost.
An ironworker who had lived in Solino for 32 years was forced to join the resistance.
“I was born in Haiti and I have no intention of leaving the country,” he told AyiboPost. “Even if I am the last one of us left alive, I will stay to fight the gangs.”
Posted Nov. 27, 2024