(NewsReady.com) – Haiti has become one of the most unstable countries in the Western Hemisphere in the wake of multiple natural disasters and dealing with corrupt officials. Gangs are a major problem in the nation of more than 11 million people. Recently, a mob attacked a group of suspected gang members.
On Monday, April 24, a mob in Port-au-Prince somehow managed to get 13 gang members out of police custody. The Associated Press reported a witness named Edner Samuel said the crowd of vigilantes began beating the suspects. They also stoned them. Finally, tires were placed over the bodies of the alleged gangsters and then lit on fire.
The witness told the press that he thought the gangsters were trying to join another group of gang members who were in a battle with the police. The city has become a haven for criminal organizations, with roughly 60% of the capital under control of gangs. The lawlessness has reached frightening levels since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021.
A mob in the Haitian capital beat and burned 13 suspected gang members to death with gasoline-soaked tires after pulling the men from police custody at a traffic stop, police and witnesses said. https://t.co/hmvmVKglFW
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 24, 2023
According to BBC, on the same day of the mob violence, the United Nations reported that violence in Port-au-Prince has reached war levels. In April, gangs killed almost 70 people. The UN reportedly stated that Haitian citizens are suffering “one of the worst human rights crises in decades and a major humanitarian emergency.”
Prime Minister Ariel Henry has led the country since the assassination, but has failed to keep citizens safe. He has asked for an international force to come to Haiti to help fight the criminal gangs; that has not happened thus far.
Port-au-Prince isn’t the only place that experienced violence on Monday. In Turgeau, police reportedly killed six more gang members in a gunfight. Then residents in the area dragged the bodies to another area and lit them on fire.
The violence in the country is so bad that Henry has postponed elections to find a new president.
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