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Haitian police protest after six of their men are slain

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Haiti’s Port-au-Prince (AFP) On Thursday, police officers and civilian protestors marched through Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, to protest the increasing violence in the Caribbean country and the recent spate of murders of police officers by armed gangs.

The day after gangs, who frequently kidnap people for ransom and rule most of Haiti, assaulted the police headquarters in Liancourt, a town in the north of the country, murdering six officers, streets were blocked with barricades.

In an attempt to enter Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s offices, the demonstrators raced onto the runway at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, delaying flight operations. The day was spent with no classes.

According to police commissioner Jean Bruce Myrtil, on Wednesday, two cops were slain by assailants before four others were taken outside the police station and “executed.”

The National Union of Haitian Police Officers reports that since the start of the year, armed gangs have killed 14 police officers.

The killing of president Jovenel Moise in July 2021 precipitated a political and economic crisis in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, which has since become worse.

Last year, 1,359 kidnappings were reported to the UN. In 2022, there were over 2,000 murders, a third more than the previous year.

In the most recent assessment of Haiti from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the police force is still “overstretched, understaffed, and under-resourced.”

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