Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/HAITI: Police officers rioted in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday after killing more than a dozen colleagues by criminal gangs.
The rioting police officers accused the government of negligence. According to the BBC, scores of police officers blocked streets, broke security cameras, damaged vehicles and burned tyres.
Local media said that several police officers broke through the prime minister’s residence gates and attempted to enter Haiti’s international airport.
At least 14 police officers have been killed since January in gang group attacks on police stations. Seven police officers were killed in a shootout on Wednesday alone, according to Haiti’s National Police.
Haiti Police Riot
On Thursday, local Haitian media outlet Vant Bef Info said that police officers in Port-au-Prince and the city of Gonaives took to the streets “in anger” and erected flaming barricades.
Vant Bef Info said that some of them reportedly went to the official residence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
When they found it empty, they headed to Port-au-Prince airport, where Henry had just landed after a summit in Argentina.
Haiti’s Radio Tele Metronome said protesters tried to gain access to the airport by breaking its windows, but Henry managed to slip away.
Many businesses and schools remained shut Thursday after the protests.
Port-au-Prince and other cities of the country have been racked for months by escalating deadly gang warfare, and Haitian media said that the country has seen a marked increase in kidnappings since the start of the year.
The Haitian human rights group, the National Network of the Defense of Human Rights, said that 78 police officers had been killed since Henry came to power in 2021.
Outgunned by the multiple criminal gangs, police have been unable to stop the violence.
In October 2022, the Henry government appealed to the global community for a multi-national security force to help restore order, but the call has yet to be answered, despite some rise in aid from the United States and Canada.
