Two men in Haiti suspected of buying weapons for gangs hacked by mob

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
31 Mar 2024 09:21
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Police appeared to fire shots into the air to prevent the killings, but the mob killed the two men anyway after finding tens of thousands of dollars on them.

Youth take cover after hearing gunshots at a public school that serves as a shelter for people displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on March 22, 2024. (AP)

Police in Haiti confirm that two men were hacked to death by a mob who thought they were buying weapons for gangs, after they were found with almost $20,000 in cash and the equivalent of about $43,000 in Haitian cash in their car, alongside two pistols and a box of ammunition.

The killings happened on Friday in a town near the provincial city of Mirebalais. Police officers appeared to fire shots into the air to prevent the killings, but the mob killed them anyway. According to the victims' IDs, one was a police officer and the other was a former guard.

William O’Neill, the UN rights expert for Haiti, said on Thursday that Haiti now needs between 4,000 and 5,000 international police to help take down “catastrophic” gang violence.

Security conditions in Haiti are deteriorating further as gangs make advances within the capital, Port-au-Prince, amid a deadlock in negotiations to establish a transitional government.

O’Neill’s report stated that back in 2023, the number of people killed and injured due to gang violence increased significantly, with 4,451 killed and 1,668 injured while this year, the numbers are climbing already, with 1,554 killed and 826 injured as of March 22.

It added that so-called “self-defense brigades” are taking matters into their own hands, and “at least 528 cases of lynching were reported in 2023 and a further 59 in 2024”.

Foreign interventions

Meanwhile, police forces are struggling to repel the gangs' progress, with 80 percent of the capital and parts of the countryside reportedly under gang control.

Kenya had expressed last July its readiness to deploy up to 1,000 personnel to Haiti, and lead a UN-backed force to the country, but Kenya conditioned that a political transition be secured before it could carry out this action.

The US Southern Command also acknowledged on Tuesday that US troops might be stationed in Haiti, going against previous vows of no boots on the ground.

Additionally, the United States revealed last week that it will deploy several naval vessels to Haiti, claiming that this measure is in response to a potential event of mass migration caused by the worsening security situation in the country.

The European Union Foreign Affairs Council has also called for the deployment of multinational security forces in Haiti amid the expansion of its armed conflict, Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, stated on Monday.