Police and civilian self-defense groups killed 28 gang members in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince in an overnight operation, authorities said Tuesday, as the government seeks to regain some control of the city.
Officers stopped a truck carrying gang members in the wealthy suburb of Petion-Ville at about 2:00 am, while a bus ferrying gang members was intercepted in the city center, Haitian National Police spokesman Lionel Lazarre told AFP.
Police opened fire in both encounters, killing 10, and then chased down those who fled with the help of self-defense groups, formed by residents opposed to the gangs and their violent rule over swaths of the country.
Last year, in a gruesome chapter of vigilante reprisals, a dozen alleged gang members were stoned and burned alive by residents in Port-au-Prince.
Well-armed gangs control some 80 percent of the city, routinely targeting civilians despite a Kenyan-led international force that has been deployed to help the outgunned police.
- Renewed violence -
The Haitian capital has seen renewed fighting in the last week from Viv Ansanm, an alliance of gangs that in February helped oust former prime minister Ariel Henry.
Streets were almost deserted on Tuesday after police and residents erected barricades in several neighborhoods.
Viv Ansanm spokesman Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherisier, a notorious gang leader, has called for the resignation of the transitional government currently leading the country.
“The Viv Ansanm coalition will use all its means to achieve the departure of the CPT,” Cherisier said Monday, using the acronym for the Transitional Presidential Council.
The council itself -- made up of unelected officials tasked with the difficult mandate of leading the country to its first elections since 2016 -- is facing its own internal disarray.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimewas was sworn in last week to replace outgoing premier Garry Conille, who was appointed in May but became embroiled in a power struggle with the council.
Meanwhile, violence continues to shake the capital.
More than 20,000 people had been displaced across Port-au-Prince in just four days last week, the UN's International Organization for Migration warned over the weekend.
The country lost major links to the rest of the world last week when the United States banned all civilian flights to the country for a month, after three jetliners approaching or departing Port-au-Prince were hit by gunfire.