Vigilantes set gang members on fire and cut off victims’ hands in ‘world’s most dangerous city’ as bodies pile up in Haiti
Haiti stands on the brink of collapse as armed gangs lay siege to the capital, but a creepy group of vengeful locals is fighting back.
Port-au-Prince, a city that is the most dangerous in the world” just got even deadlier as vigilantes hunt down gangsters and burn and mutilate their victims.
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Bodies are piling up in the streets of… Haitis capital that is embroiled in all-out civil war between warring gangs, a weak police force and civilian-led death squads.
Thousands of people have been killed this month amid widespread reports of murder, rape, arson and kidnappings. merciless gangs ruling the capital led to a new dawn of violence.
But like the the Caribbean The country is reeling under a state of emergency – a machete-wielding civilian army is now on the lawless streets.
Suspected gang members were killed in an attack yesterday in the upmarket Petion-Ville neighborhood in Port-au-Prince’s eastern suburbs.
The neighborhood, once considered a safe zone in the violence-wracked city and filled with embassies, has been drawn into the carnage of gun battles raging through the streets.
A Reuters reporter saw two suspected gang members, including a leader known as Makandal, killed on Wednesday.
Grim footage showed their bodies being dragged across the street, with one man having his hands cut off before being set on fire.
Makandal’s family home was also set on fire, while his belongings and motorcycle were burned in the street.
Police and locals reported the deadly clash as evidence of a revival of vigilante justice as law and order remains virtually absent in the capital.
Nearly a year ago, a group of residents lynched and burned 13 suspected gang members, launching the so-called Bwa Kale movement.
The vigilante movement lies somewhere between a civilian-led uprising and a murderous campaign that aid groups have accused of causing even more violence and chaos.
Rights groups have argued that Bwa Kale’s attacks were sometimes carried out together with members of Haiti’s national police.
Earlier on Wednesday, fifteen people were killed in attacks around Petion-Ville.
Terrified residents barricaded themselves in their homes as armed men launched new attacks.
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Local resident Samuel Orelus said: “When I woke up to go to work, I found that I could not leave because the area was in the hands of the bandits.
“There were about 30 men with heavy weapons. If the neighborhood had mobilized, we could have destroyed them, but they were heavily armed and we couldn’t do anything.”
Notorious gang boss, Jimmy Cherizier, aka “BarbecueThe head of the capital’s most fearsome gang coalition, the G9, has also threatened the neighborhood.
Rumor has it that the fired cop turned warlord is 47 years old and that he earned his nickname for setting his victims on fire. He has led a long reign of terror over the poorest parts of the city.
This week he angrily declared he would storm the hotels in Petion-Ville – where international aid workers are said to be sheltering – after accusing hotel owners of hiding old politicians.
The latest outbreak of violence comes as the political future of the crisis-ridden Caribbean island hangs in limbo.
Lawless state
For over two years Warring parties have torn Port-au-Prince apart and turned every day into a fight for survival.
But Haiti has been rocked by a wave of unrest since February Armed groups invaded a prisonreleasing more than 5,000 prisoners, and demanding that Prime Minister Ariel Henry resign.
After weeks of anarchy, the de facto prime minister said he would step down last week – a demand from the increasingly powerful gangs that control nearly 90 percent of Port-au-Prince.
However, the unprecedented violence continues as Henry remains stranded outside the country.
The Haitian police, barely staffed and armed by the gangs, are unable to quell the chaos.
The US estimates that about a thousand of its citizens are stuck in the Caribbean country as the military works to evacuate them.
The capital’s port and airport continue to be blockaded by gangs, while police stations, public buildings and other state facilities are under attack.
The violence has worsened an already grim humanitarian situation, with warnings of famine, malnutrition and the collapse of basic services.
According to aid agencies, more than 1.5 million Haitians are at risk of famine and 360,000 Haitians – half of whom are children – have been displaced.
Philippe Branchat, head of the International Organization for Migration, said in a statement: “People living in the capital are locked up, with nowhere to go.
“The capital is surrounded by armed groups and danger. It is a city under siege.”
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