Gang members in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, have raided a key community home to numerous police officers and been under siege for four days in an ongoing attack, and residents fear the violence will spread across the city.
The sound of automatic weapons echoed throughout Solino Thursday as thick plumes of black smoke rose above the once peaceful neighborhood where frantic residents continued to call radio stations for help.
“If the police don't come, we will die today!” said an unidentified caller he called.
Lita Saintil, a 52-year-old street vendor, said she fled Solino on Thursday with her teenage nephew after being trapped in their home for hours by incessant gunfire.
The houses around him were burned down by gangs and he remembers seeing at least six bodies as he fled.
“It's very scary now,” he said. “I don't know where I'm going.”
It was not immediately clear who organized and participated in the attack on Solino. The community, which is home to thousands of people, was once rife with gangs before a United Nations peacekeeping mission drove them out in the mid-2000s.
Analysts say violence has been rising for months as gangs vie for power and seek to pressure interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, before a political deal that consolidated their power expires on Feb. 7.
The latest attack could mark a turning point for the gangs, which are now estimated to control up to 80 percent of Port-au-Prince and are suspected of killing nearly 4,000 people and kidnapping another 3,000 last year, the news agency reported. Associated Press.
If Solino falls, the gangs would have easy access to neighborhoods like Canape Vert, which until now have remained peaceful and largely safe.
On Thursday night, the Haitian National Police issued a statement saying that officers had been deployed to Solino “with the objective of locating and arresting armed individuals seeking to sow panic among the civilian population.” Police also released a nearly three-minute video showing officers on a rooftop in Solino exchanging gunfire with unidentified gunmen who were not seen on screen.
Nearby communities, frightened by the violence in Solino, began setting up barricades on Thursday using stones, trucks, tires and even bananas to keep out the gangs.
Haiti is awaiting the deployment of a foreign armed force led by Kenya to help quell gang violence, which was approved by the UN Security Council in October.
A Kenyan judge is expected to rule on Jan. 26 on an order currently blocking the deployment.
