Haiti gangs storm another police station

Police retreat in the face of bandits’ firepower

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Gangs stormed a police station on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital overnight into Saturday, a police union told Agence France-Presse, as a transitional ruling council struggled to restore order in the violence-wracked Caribbean nation.

The police station is located in the town of Gressier, south of Port-au-Prince, said Lionel Lazarre of the Haitian police union.

Videos shared on social media showed civilians armed with assault rifles inside the police building. Several vehicles in the building’s parking lot were afire.

Reached by AFP, local authorities were unable to say how many people were hurt in the attack.

A resident of Gressier, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the fighting lasted several hours and that the police had to retreat in the face of “the bandits’ striking power.”

Local residents were forced to flee their homes in the morning because of the violence, the woman said.

Haiti has had no president since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in 2021 and it has no sitting parliament. Its last election was in 2016, and the new transitional council is still struggling to assert its authority.

The country has been wracked for decades by poverty, natural disasters, political instability and gang violence, which has grown worse in recent months with gangs attacking the capital’s airport, prisons, police stations and other strategic targets.

Another police union, SPNH-17, said in a statement on social media that gangs now control 25 police stations and branches in the country.