Another Town in Haiti Comes Under Attack a Week After Gangs Killed at Least 115 People

Gunmen invaded another town north of Haiti’s capital on Thursday, shooting at people and setting homes on fire, just a week after a massacre killed at least 115 people in the country’s central region. The number of casualties was not immediately known.

Residents in the coastal town of Arcahaie called radio stations pleading for help and asking that police come and save them.

Lionel Lazarre, deputy police spokesman, told Radio Caraïbes that officers were on site and that authorities were taking several measures to strengthen their presence.

“The police heard the people of Arcahaie shouting for help,” he said.

Radio Télé Monopole reported that gunmen attacked the town before dawn, opening fire and wounding multiple people as they set fire to homes, especially those in the Vigner and Bercy communities.

Several radio stations reported that the attack was launched by the gang in the area of Canaan known as the Taliban. The gang has around 200 members and operates mostly in the northern part of the Port-au-Prince capital.

Arcahaie is located between Haiti’s capital and the central town of Pont-Sondé, where another gang, Gran Grif, is accused of killing more than 115 people last Thursday.

While most of the gang violence is centered in Port-au-Prince — which is 80% controlled by gangs — it has spread north of the capital in recent years, especially the central Artibonite region.

This came as Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille has landed in Kenya for a four-day state visit.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi who is also the foreign affairs Cabinet Secretary welcomed Conille at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Thursday.

According to Mudavadi, Conille is expected to hold high-level bilateral talks with President William Ruto surrounding strengthening security cooperation and fostering partnerships that promote regional stability between Kenya and Haiti.

Kenya police are in Haiti to help in containing the gangs there.

Gangs have in recent months expanded their territories, pushing hundreds of thousands more people from their homes and worsening a hunger crisis while long-delayed international support continues to lag.