Panic hits Port-au-Prince as residents flee gang violence

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A wave of fear swept Port-au-Prince on Thursday as hundreds of families tried to flee certain neighborhoods of the Haitian capital after a neighborhood was taken over by gangs, an AFP journalist noted.

On Wednesday, the Solino neighborhood fell under the control of the “Viv Ansanm” (“Living Together”) gang alliance, which formed in February and worked to oust former Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who resigned from his position in April.

Residents of the Delmas 30, Nazon and Christ-Roi neighborhoods feared being the next targets of the gangs, with some fleeing on foot or by car, taking clothes, important documents and even furniture.

“I lived in Solino. I can’t stay there anymore. The criminals kicked me out of my house,” says Marjorie, a woman who was carrying some belongings on her head near the Nazon district.

“I have nowhere to go. I will live on the streets,” she lamented.

Port-au-Prince has been plagued by a new wave of violence from Viv Ansanm since Monday, when businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé was sworn in as Prime Minister, replacing Garry Conille, dismissed by the Presidential Transitional Council.

Fils-Aimé, who held meetings to form his cabinet, promised to restore security to the island nation and hold its first elections since 2016.

In the meantime, hundreds of residents have found refuge at the Citizen Protection Office (OPC) in the Bourbon district, transformed into a makeshift camp for people displaced from their homes.

Avenel, one of the camp residents, came with his wife and three children after having to flee their home in Solino.

“My eldest son was killed by gangs last March in Delmas. They burned down my house,” Avenel told AFP. “I took refuge in another house in Solino. This one also caught fire.”

The unrest comes after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration canceled all commercial flights to Port-au-Prince from the United States on Monday due to the recent streak of violence, a move condemned by the Haitian government.