Thousands march in Haiti to demand safety as gang violence soars

Several thousand people — their faces covered to conceal their identities — have marched through Haiti’s capital demanding protection from violent gangs who are pillaging neighbourhoods in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond.

Haitians' daily lives have been disrupted by incessant gang violence that has worsened poverty across the country as it awaits a decision from the UN Security Council over a potential deployment of an international armed force.

"We want security!” the crowd chanted on Monday as it marched for two hours from the troubled community of Carrefour-Feuilles to Champ de Mars in the downtown area and then to the prime minister's official residence, where police broke up the demonstration with tear gas.

"I worry about my kids being shot because bullets are flying from all directions all the time," Joseph said of her children, ages 5 and 7. "The situation is unacceptable."

Mario Jenty, a 36-year-old cell phone vendor who joined Monday’s march, said the increase in kidnappings is pushing Haitians into even deeper poverty.

"They’re going to have to sell that home to pay for ransom, and there’s a chance they might not be released," he said of the victims.

Gangs control Port-au-Prince

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, experts say gangs have seized control of up to 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, killing, raping and sowing terror in communities already suffering endemic poverty.

From January to March, more than 1,600 people have been reported killed, injured or kidnapped, a nearly 30 percent increase compared with the last three months of 2022, according to the newest UN report.

On Monday, UNICEF announced an "alarming spike" in kidnappings, with nearly 300 confirmed cases so far this year, almost equaling the number reported for all of last year, and almost three times the total for 2021.

The agency noted that women and children are increasingly being kidnapped and used for financial or tactical gain.

Parents of young children are particularly fearful that gangs will snatch them when they go to and from school.

Nacheline Nore, 40, said her two boys, ages 10 and 8, have to call her every day as soon as they step inside their school, and she rides back home with them every afternoon: "You don't know who’s going to be the next target," she said.

Govt seeks international help

More than 200 people have been slain since a violent uprising that began earlier this year, and demonstrators vowed to keep the movement alive as gangs overwhelm Haiti’s understaffed and under-resourced police department.

Last October, Haiti’s prime minister and other top-ranking officials requested the urgent deployment of an international armed force to help quell gang violence.

In late July, Kenya offered to lead a multinational police force, but the UN Security Council has yet to vote on a resolution to authorise a non-UN multinational mission.

The US said last week that it would put forward such a resolution.