Overview:
Police killed a number of alleged gang members, together with the infamous chief often called Kendy “Jeff Mafia,” the second commander of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, in the course of the clashes final weekend. In retaliation, the gangs attacked the Poste Marchand neighborhood, setting a significant church and several other homes on hearth, inflicting dozens of displacements. Moreover, a ship carrying folks and merchandise from Port-au-Prince to Miragoâne sank off Petit-Goâve on Dec. 14, leaving at the very least one useless and several other passengers lacking.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti endured a violent and tragic weekend marked by a sequence of incidents and unrest, resulting in quite a few deaths and the destruction of property, together with a sunken ship that left many households in mourning. In one of many main incidents, the Haitian Nationwide Police (PNH) killed the infamous gang chief often called Kendy “Jeff Mafia”—the second-in-chief of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition after Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier—together with a number of different members.
In keeping with Lionel Lazarre, deputy spokesperson for the PNH, operations performed in Port-au-Prince on Dec. 14-15 led to the killing of Kendy “Jeff Mafia,” a key ally of Barbecue. Often called the second-in-command of the Delmas 6 gang, he was killed in a conflict with PNH officers close to Fort Nationwide, near the Nationwide Palace and a base of the Haitian Armed Forces (FADH).
The PNH deputy spokesperson additionally reported that police killed a number of different gang members in the course of the two-day operations, which spanned Delmas 6, Delmas 19, Carrefour Aéroport, Nazon, and Poste Marchand. The operations included extended gunfire exchanges, with stray bullets hitting houses in a number of neighborhoods, notably Delmas 30.
“A number of different gang members accompanying Kendy had been additionally killed in exchanges of gunfire with legislation enforcement,” Lazarre stated. “These operations goal to weaken the management of prison teams over strategic areas of the capital.”
Gang retaliation spreads terror after the demise of Kendy Jeff Mafia
Following the demise of Barbecue’s right-hand man, the Viv Ansanm coalition launched a wave of retaliatory assaults. In Poste Marchand, they burned a number of homes and the Church of God— a long-time church serving 1000’s of worshipers within the space— forcing dozens of residents to flee their houses. Smoke-filled photographs from the world circulated extensively on social media, amplifying requires police intervention.
In one other assault close to Village Solidarité on Route de l’Aéroport, gangs tried to grab Bernard Mevs Hospital however had been repelled by police. One particular person was killed outdoors their dwelling in the course of the assault.
In the meantime, clashes continued in Artibonite, the place legislation enforcement, supported by Kenyan cops from the Multinational Safety Assist (MSS) mission, encountered resistance from gangs in Savien. As of now, no official toll from these encounters has been reported.
Arrest of presumed arms trafficking fugitive
Amid the chaos, PNH launched Pastor Dieuné Day, a Delmas/Port-au-Prince church senior chief and fugitive arrested on Dec. 12 by authorities from the Dominican Republic. Day, accused of arms trafficking linked to the Episcopal Church of Haiti, was extradited to Haiti over the weekend.
“The Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) had been looking for Pastor Day for varied different expenses, together with tax evasion, smuggling, and affiliation of criminals,” the PNH stated in a statement accompanied by a video posted on its Fb.
Denying his involvement, Day acknowledged, “I nonetheless don’t know why I’m being arrested,” responding to police’s questions. He defined that he was the topic of an arrest warrant however selected to depart the nation when he was slandered on social media and Port-au-Prince radios as a prison in possession of firearms.
“I do know I had a case earlier than the appeals courtroom. I used to be in Santo Domingo and entered Haiti to fulfill with my lawyer so he might current me to the choose,” added the pastor of the Eglise Sur Le Rocher, French for Church on the Rock, based mostly in Delmas 31.
A tragic shipwreck off Petit-Goâve leaves many Haitian households mourning
In a separate tragedy, a ship transporting dozens of individuals and merchandise from Port-au-Prince to Miragoâne, a coastal metropolis about 50-60 nautical miles from the Haitian capital, sank off Petit-Goâve within the early morning of Dec. 14. As off Monday evening, solely 21 survivors and one demise had been accounted for. Scores of passengers, together with a Coast Guard officer, are reported lacking.
The ship, La Sicilia, was registered in Port-de-Paix, the capital metropolis of the Northwest Division, in response to Haiti’s Maritime and Navigation Service’s (SEMANAH) data. Although official figures stay unconfirmed, the Haitian authorities acknowledged a number of fatalities. “A number of lives had been saved, however the tragedy stays heartbreaking,” the Prime Minister’s office stated, noting efforts of the federal government, significantly the Civil Safety Workplace and the SEMANAH, to help survivors and households of victims.
Confronted with the insecurity that has reigned on nationwide roads for practically two years, folks not hesitate to threat their lives at sea to flee an insurmountable state of affairs. The laxity of the authorities towards the armed gangs that management most of Port-au-Prince continues to push Haitians to make excessive selections, usually at their peril.