More than a dozen suspected gang members were stoned and burned alive Monday by residents of a Haitian neighborhood, according to police and witnesses, the same day the UN warned about insecurity similar to that of “a country at war.”

The new violent act took place after police officers detained the armed men, in a context of strong tensions in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“During the search of a minibus with armed individuals on board, the police confiscated weapons and other equipment. On the other hand, more than a dozen individuals who were traveling aboard this vehicle were unfortunately lynched by members of the population,” the police said. Haitian police in a statement.

The police did not specify the exact number of victims, nor the circumstances in which they lost custody of the suspects, later murdered by inhabitants of the wealthy Canapé-Vert neighborhood, in the south of Port-au-Prince.

But the violence began before dawn, when gang members stormed several residential neighborhoods in the capital, robbing houses and attacking neighbors, according to witnesses.

“The noise of projectiles woke us up this morning. It was 3:00 in the morning, the gangs invaded us. There were shots,” a resident of the Turgeau neighborhood, also in the south of the capital, told AFP.

“If the gangs invade us, we are going to defend ourselves, we also have our own weapons, we have machetes, we are going to take their weapons, we are not going to run away,” added another neighbor, very tense.

More than 400 people have died in the last six months in Haiti in armed attacks, according to a report published Monday by the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), which demands explanations from the authorities given the increase in armed attacks against the Haitian civilian population.

Between November 2022 and this Monday, there have been at least eight armed attacks against the population at the hands of gangs in their fight to control the territory of the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince.

Incursions, sporadic armed attacks and massacres against the Haitian population have intensified in the country since the beginning of 2023, particularly in the West and Artibonite departments, where several hundred people have been murdered and gang-raped “a several dozen women and girls,” says the RNDDH document.

More than fifty areas have suffered armed attacks since the beginning of the year, according to the NGO, areas that were known for their tranquility in the past, but currently the gangs “operate where they want and take control of any area that interests them.” report continues.

The last armed attack was perpetrated last night in Debussy, in the upper part of Turgeau, in the commune of Port-au-Prince, which was preceded by a series of violent actions in different areas of the capital.

During the night of November 29-30, 2022, in Sous Matelas, 72 people were murdered, 29 women and girls were victims of gang rapes, and hundreds of houses were set on fire.

Between February 28 and March 5, 2023, Bel-Air was the scene of violent armed clashes between members of the G-9 an Fanmi et Alliés armed gangs and the Bel-Air gang, led by Jimmy Cherizier alias Barbecue and Kempès Sanon, respectively, leaving 148 people murdered or missing.

From April 14 to 19, 2023, armed clashes in various areas of Cité Soleil resulted in the murder of at least 70 people and another 40 wounded by bullets or stab wounds, but to date no balance has been established. comprehensive facts.

The organization also alludes to the actions carried out since April 19 in Source Matelas, where at least a hundred people were killed, some of them after being locked up in houses that gang members set on fire, while dozens of people were shot.

The RNDDH vehemently condemned the climate of terror established in the country by those who must guarantee the protection of the population since, in their opinion, it is evident that the armed bandits are protected by the political coalition in power and have carte blanche to attack the civilian population, abandoned to its fate.

The NGO asked the Government for the cancellation of a series of measures that were implemented from February to October 2022 by the police authorities to contain the armed gangs, since it has led to the intensification of these simultaneous armed attacks.

After the Haitian National Police received equipment and vehicles from the international community, particularly from the United States, it was decided to occupy and control the territory to confine the armed gangs to their redoubts, making their movements difficult.

But “the revocation by the state authorities of this strategic control plan (…) allows the armed gangs to completely control the metropolitan area,” the NGO said.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project