PORT AU Prince, Haiti, Aug 5, CMC- The Haitian National Police (PNH) is disputing a video being circulated on social media showing an armored vehicle being set on fire by members of the the “400 Mawozo” gang.
The video on Sunday showed the armed individuals from the gang capturing the vehicle and looting it and then setting it on fire.
But the PNH, which is engaged in security operations in a bid to capture criminal gang in Gantheir, a commune in the Croix-des-Bouquets Arrondissement, in the Ouest department of Haiti.
The PNH said it would like to clarify to the public “that this armored vehicle had broken down and been parked for some time and was not engaged in police operations”.
But it acknowledged that members of the “400 Mawozo” gang took control of the customs offices, which they looted and set fire to, forcing the police to retreat in the face of a force superior in numbers and weapons.
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) said thousands of people have been killed or injured in gang violence in Haiti. Tens of thousands of people have fled the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, to escape a surge in gang violence.
Some of Haiti’s gangs have bigger arsenals than the police as criminal groups are becoming “stronger, richer and more autonomous” by using arms trafficking to fuel their growth, according to UN experts.
Hundreds of Kenyan troops have arrived in Haiti on a peacekeeping mission backed by the United Nations. The goal of the force is to wrest the country back from the heavily armed gangs that control more than 80 percent of the capital.
CMC/af/ir/2024