Port-au-Prince, Haiti – More than 12 folks had been slain and quite a few houses set on fireplace in a neighborhood close to Haiti’s capital as gangs battle to regulate extra territory, a mayor informed The Associated Press on Thursday. The incident occurred within the small city of Cabaret, northwest of Port-au-Prince, at almost midnight Tuesday, Mayor Joseph Jeanson Guillaume stated.
The neighborhood just lately appointed native residents to function guards given a spike in violence throughout Haiti, however they had been overpowered by gangs with machine weapons, he stated.
“There was nothing they were able to do to defend themselves,” Guillaume stated. “This is a terrible incident.”
Pictures and movies shared on social media present the our bodies of mutilated victims strewn exterior their houses and fires burning by means of the evening, consuming greater than 20 homes.
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Guillaume referred to as on Haiti’s National Police to carry these accountable to justice and to strengthen the presence and sources of officers in Cabaret, which he stated had change into “a lawless zone.”
He additionally urged city residents to point out solidarity and soak up these fleeing their houses to keep away from being killed by “merciless gangs” and “be with them during these difficult times.”
The killings are the newest blamed on gangs who’ve grown extra highly effective because the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.