PORT-AU-PRINCE — There is no sleeping inside Port-au-Prince’s Solino neighborhood.
Since members of a powerful gang coalition began carrying out a new round of violent attacks, clouds of smoke billow across the working-class neighborhood, bullets riddle its walls and the deserted cobble-stone streets have become a scene of both terror and resistance.
A strategic neighborhood that would give members of the Viv Ansanm gang alliance access to areas of the capital not currently under their control, Solino has become the latest test for Haitian police and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission. Despite reports of successes against gangs, the mission, which also includes three dozen Jamaican, Belizean and Bahamian security personnel, has struggled to stop the expansion of violence as armed gangs launch a new wave of coordinated attacks against several neighborhoods in the capital and towns on its outskirts.
“There’s no sleep,” a 40-year-old Solino resident who asked not to be named told the Miami Herald. “If you are a young man, a young woman you have no choice but to stay awake and keep watch. But right now, no one in the area is sleeping.”
Haitian Prime Minister Gary Conille, left, speaks to the press along with Haiti Police Chief Rameau Normil, right, at Hospital Bernard Mevs where they went to visit Haitian police officers who have been wounded while battling gangs in Port-au-Prince. (Photos by: JOSE IGLESIAS/Miami Herald)
Videos of the crime scene, shot by the gangs, show heavily armed members going door to door pulling out residents and threatening to set homes ablaze.
On Wednesday, the United Nations Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince said that between July and September, more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 500 injured by gang violence as well as in the fight against gangs. The violence primarily took place in the Port-au-Prince area and the Artibonite region to the north. During the same period, the mission documented 170 kidnappings for ransom.
The U.N. mission also expressed concerns about continuing acts of sexual violence committed by gangs against women and girls, as well as the effects of violence on children. During the reporting period, children were victims of sexual violence, human trafficking and gang recruitment.
The U.N. also sounded the alarm about extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions by law enforcement officials, saying there were at least 106. This includes 96 by the Haiti National Police and 10 by the government prosecutor in the city of Miragoâne. Among the victims were six children around age 10.
Among the recommendations: Accelerate the full deployment of the Kenya-led mission and the establishment by Haitian authorities of a specialized judicial task force to combat mass crimes, including sexual violence.
Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the multinational mission “has had very limited impact” on the security situation in Haiti due to its lack of equipment at the start of its deployment on June 25. This has affected the 410-member mission’s ability to engage in forceful operations to enter gangs’ strongholds, he said.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, August 27, 2024 -A Police guard keeps his trigger finger at the ready as Haitian Prime Minister Gary Conille, left, speaks to the press along with Haiti Police Chief Rameau Normil, right, at Hospital Bernard Mevs where they went to visit Haitian police officers who have been wounded while battling gangs in Port-au-Prince. Photos by: Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald)
“The Kenyans are about 380 so they also have a very limited amount of officers to respond to attacks that are happening on different fronts,” said Da Rin. “Right now, what we’ve been seeing since the night of [Oct. 16 and 17] is that the gangs relaunched a new round, a new wave of coordinated attacks in the capital, and they are also profiting from having more power in other areas, as in the south, as in the north, to try to overstretch the limited capacities of the security forces.”
Since August, the multinational mission, the Haiti National Police and the country’s small army have been launching more offensive operations against the gangs, including those trying to overtake Solino. However, the operations are often short lived.
“They did some damage to the ranks of the gangs, but the problem is that when there are some successes in specific operations, the MSS and the HNP don’t have the capacity to maintain these gains,” Da Rin said. “There have been these reports by the MSS of everything they have taken over, but in reality this is more a matter of roads and alleys than of whole neighborhoods they’ve been able to clear gang presence from.”
Haitian analysts say the police forces face several other challenges. There is a lack of trust by the Kenyans toward some of their Haitian counterparts joining them in operations, and a lack of knowledge of the lay of the land. For example, they often lack information on how many armed groups occupy a neighborhood, or many individual gang members occupy those territories. As a result, the Kenyan troops have been accused of not stepping out of their armored vehicles, not firing back in some areas, or leaving after only a few hours.
Further complicating matters is the deteriorating political environment. The country’s already fragile transition is hanging by a thread as Prime Minister Garry Conille and the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council engage in an public war that the Caribbean Community this week called “unseemly and distracting.”
In a press statement, the 15-member regional bloc known as CARICOM warned that the rising tensions between the prime minister and the scandal-plagued council is endangering the transition and ‘further deepening and prolonging” Haitians’ suffering.
So far neither entity has publicly responded to Caribbean leaders’ concerns. On Wednesday, the transitional council, which is demanding that Conille reshuffle his government and replace at least least four current ministers — at finance, justice, foreign affairs and interior — summoned Conille to address concerns about the use of a private contracting company in the gang fight.
There have been allegations that Conille, who pushed the meeting to next week, has signed a contract with Studebaker Defense Group, a multinational security contractor that attempted to sign a contract with the government of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry last year.
In addition to Solino, armed gangs have also attacked the northern city of Arcahaie. And on Tuesday, video circulating on social media showed a Viv Ansanm member dismantling a police station in Cabaret. The attacks have forced more than 10,000 people from their homes in recent days.
“Everybody fights back how they can,” said the Solino resident. He said people perch themselves in areas not yet under gang control or on top of buildings that haven’t fallen. Some of them have guns or toss Molotov cocktails.
Residents also face a humanitarian crisis, he said.
“You’re going to have more people die here from hunger than gunshots,” he said, noting the absence of the government and nonprofit aid groups in Solino. “We don’t even have water. “
By JACQUELINE CHARLES/Miami Herald