A vehicle from a specialized police unit in Haiti was attacked Monday by suspected gangs during a patrol in the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
Five police officers and two journalists were in the vehicle which was patrolling a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Thick smoke quickly invaded the interior of the armored vehicle, the roof of which caught fire.
Etienne was one of the volunteers who helped the police put out the fire. ''We must help the police. The population must get involved. Today, the bandits are against us, against the people. If they were not against us, they would not burn our houses, they would not burn the houses in Solino, they would not burn our house in Delmas.'', explains this resident of the capital.
Around 90% of the Haitian capital is controlled by gangs. For two years, Kenyan police officers have set down their bags in Haiti to fight against these armed groups as part of a mission supported by the UN. But it struggles to obtain results due to lack of resources. In September, the United Nations approved the creation of a "gang suppression force".
The abuses of these armed men have caused the displacement of at least 1.4 million people within the country. It is in this context that elections are expected in this country this year, the first in ten years.
