Corpses rotting in the streets, gangs ruling by terror and even the police ... trends now
Haitians have little to cheer about at the best of times — but a fortnight ago, the inhabitants of the capital Port-au-Prince erupted on to the streets in celebration.
Tragically, it was for the most macabre of reasons. Two suspected members of a local criminal gang that had been terrorising the smart neighbourhood of Petion-Ville had been captured by vigilantes and their bloody corpses were being dragged down a street to be lynched. They had been shot dead minutes earlier in a gun battle with police.
As shocking video footage of the incident confirmed, one of them — the gang's leader, known as Makandal — had already had his hands hacked off.
Excited children mingled with men brandishing machetes in the large crowd that accompanied the grim procession, as people chanted 'Viv la polis!', or 'Long live the police!'. The bodies of the two men were set on fire minutes later to cries of 'Ole, ole, ole!' from bystanders.
It was a bloody denouement in the near-civil war now raging between warring gangs on one side and police and vigilantes on the other in this eternally blighted Caribbean country. Such is the anarchy and carnage that has engulfed this impoverished and crumbling land that a horrified United Nations boss has compared it to a scene from the dystopian movie Mad Max.
The gangs are an old menace in Haiti. Thousands of their members — many still in their teens — roam the streets, some with a red cloth wrapped around the muzzles of their guns following a superstition that the colour will protect them from bullets
Police, desperately out-gunned and under-manned, are openly colluding with the vigilantes
Gang leader Makandal and his associate had received justice from a new civilian vigilante movement called Bwa Kale. The situation's so desperate, some hail this terrifying development as the only solution to the the heavily armed gangs who now control an estimated 80 per cent of the capital.
Police, desperately out-gunned and under-manned, are openly colluding with the vigilantes. They have reportedly taken on the gangs together in joint operations in which the so-called 'self-defence brigades' are sometimes armed only with machetes, hammers and even just their bare hands.
On occasions, the vigilantes mount roadblocks so streets and houses can be searched for gang members. If men are judged to be members they are burned, sometimes alive.
Critics decry the Bwa Kale killings — which have left a tell-tale trail of charred patches of ground across the city — saying innocent people are losing their lives, and this is just another form of gang warfare that will only spark even worse violence.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, has long been dysfunctional and violence-plagued. To make matters worse, Port-au-Prince — the epicentre of the fighting — still hasn't recovered from a 2010 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people.
Now, with the capital in a state of emergency and under a night-time curfew, the city is once more strewn with corpses decomposing in the tropical heat. Passers-by pause only long enough in the dangerous streets to cover up the blood-spattered remains with cloths and cardboard boxes — to spare passing children the gruesome sight.
The gangs are an old menace in Haiti. Thousands of their members — many still in their teens — roam the streets, some with a red cloth wrapped around the muzzles of their guns, following a voodoo superstition that the colour will protect them from bullets. They are often as poor as the rest of the population but their guns — assault weapons, high-powered rifles, pump-action shotguns and pistols — all look brand new.
Most of the guns have been bought from the U.S., then smuggled into Haiti on container ships. In 2022, Haitian officials even found a haul of weapons hidden in a shipment going from Florida to a local Episcopal church.
Canadian soldiers stand guard by the Canadian embassy as violence spreads and armed gangs expand their control over the capital Port-au-Prince
Haitians fight to use a fuel pump at a petrol station after gangs blocked off all roads into the city causing shortages in food, fuel and other supplies
Schools and businesses remain shuttered for fear of crossfire or being subjected to extortion, and many people are trapped in their homes by the fighting. But, even there they aren't safe, as gangs burst in, ransacking them and raping women.
The UN last week said more than 1,500 people have been killed in gang violence so far this year, in what it called a 'cataclysmic situation' in which the country's state institutions are 'close to collapse'. UN expert William O'Neill said Haitians are trapped in an
