P-to-P, April 16, 2024 [AlterPresse] — Heavy gunfire continues to be reported in various locations in the metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, this Tuesday, April 16, 2024, according to information gathered by the online agency AlterPresse.
Shooting caused a panic situation at Drouillard (on national road No. 1), the roads of Delmas and the international airport of Port-au-Prince, at the crossroads of which an armored vehicle of the Haitian National Police (PNH).
Armed individuals were reported in Clercine, in the commune of Tabarre (north-east of Port-au-Prince).
Bursts of automatic weapons, which lasted several hours, woke up, on the night of Monday April 15 to Tuesday April 16, 2024, several residents in various areas, notably on Martin Luther King Avenue (commonly known as Nazon), on the road to Port-au-Prince international airport, in Delmas.
Sounds of helicopters, which flew over several areas in Port-au-Prince, were also heard, early this Tuesday morning, April 16, 2024, by residents in several neighborhoods.
Coordinated attacks by armed gangs have intensified since Thursday, February 29, 2024, in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, where citizens continue to be murdered or victims of stray bullets.
Commercial activities are struggling to operate normally in areas occupied by armed gangs, particularly in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Many schools continue to keep their doors closed in these places infested with armed bandits.
The capital, Port-au-Prince, and its surroundings, economic, political, academic and health center of the country, have become “an open-air prison” in Haitiestimated the United Nations Expert on human rights in Haiti, the American William O’Neill, before the Human Rights Council, in Geneva (Switzerland), Tuesday April 2, 2024.
Residents cannot leave their homes because they fear for their lives, noted William O’Neill, emphasizing how crime and armed gang violence represent “the number one challenge at present in Haiti.” .
83 private and public institutions and/or businesses were attacked, vandalized and/or set on fire in Port-au-Prince and neighboring communes, including 19 police stations and 5 peace courts and one (1) court of first instance, identified the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (Rnddh) in a report dated Wednesday April 10, 2024.
From January to March 2024, the United Nations recorded more than 1,500 people killed, while the Rnddh was able to count, for the same period, at least 208 dead, including 13 national police officers.
From Friday March 8 to Tuesday April 9, 2024, (a number of) 94,821 people fled the metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Princeto take refuge in provincial towns, according to the latest data published on Friday April 12, 2024, by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
58% of these displaced people took means of transport towards the departments of the Grand Sud (South-East, South, Grande Anse and Nippes / South-West).
The number of internally displaced people in Haiti has reached more than 360,000 since 2023. [emb rc apr 16/04/2024 11:30]
