Bodies strewn on streets in ‘Mad Max’ nightmare

Life in Haiti is “almost like a scene out of Mad Max”, the head of the UN children’s agency has said.

Catherine Russell, executive director of Unicef, likened the country’s situation to the post-apocalyptic future portrayed in the film franchise as millions of vulnerable Haitians await the formation of a transitional governing council.

“Haiti is in a horrific situation,” Russell told the American talk show Face the Nation. “Many, many people there are suffering from serious hunger and malnutrition, and we’re not able to get enough aid to them.”

Gangs control key roads and much of Port-au-Prince, the capital. “It’s almost like a scene out of Mad Max,” she said.

Yesterday 12 bodies were found on the streets in Petionville, a once-upmarket area of Port-au-Prince. They are believed to have been the latest victims of a wave of vigilante justice that is becoming commonplace in a country effectively ruled by the criminal gangs.

Gunmen looted several large homes before dawn in the formerly peaceful mountainside communities of Laboule and Thomassin, forcing residents to flee. Some called radio stations pleading for help from the police, to no avail.

Haiti’s power company announced that four substations in the capital and elsewhere “were destroyed and rendered completely dysfunctional”. As a result, swathes of the capital were without power. Only one hospital in Port-au-Prince, which has a population of about one million, is functioning. Aid agencies are operating some mobile hospitals with limited facilities.

In the sprawling Cite Soleil slum, four out of 10 deaths are caused by violence, according to a survey by the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Haiti declared a state of emergency this month after Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, leader of an alliance of gangs, said they would overthrow Ariel Henry, 74, the prime minister.

In the days that followed all the key symbols of the state: the airport, police stations, prisons and government buildings were attacked. The pressure eventually forced Henry to announce his resignation eight days ago.

The security crisis has also hampered the distribution of aid. Foreign aid workers have been attacked or kidnapped for ransom and on Saturday gangs looted a Unicef shipment intended to provide relief for mothers and children.

The UN believes that the gangs, whose ranks have been boosted after attacks on two prisons freed thousands of inmates, have amassed arsenals of weapons trafficked largely from the United States.

Efforts continue to organise a Kenyan-led security mission to support the nation’s beleaguered police force.