Haitian gangs fall back on old guerrilla tactics as Kenyan police guard installations
Kenyan police officers patrol as part of a peacekeeping mission, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 17, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Those who have observed gang violence in Haiti, however, say the MSS should expect on-off violent scenes throughout the Mission’s stay in Haiti.
- When the Mission touched down in June, for instance, gang leaders announced they had withdrawn to the outskirts of the city.
The Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in Haiti led by Kenyan police has been reporting critical partial successes in the last month since they arrived in the Caribbean country.
Even so, there has been little time to celebrate yet. On Monday, for instance, Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille came under fire as he left the General Hospital, also known as the Hospital of the State University of Haiti.
Mr Conille who came to power in April as a transitional prime minister, had walked into the Hospital with a CNN crew led by Larry Madowo and was accompanied by Haitian National Police (HNP) Director General Normil Rameau and the General Commander of MSS Godfrey Otunge “to do an assessment,” according to a dispatch.
“…towards the end of his interview, two shots were heard from the nearby neighbourhood. After the PM had successfully completed the interview, he left the hospital with his security detail but at one of the corners at the Hospital, some security officers fired some shots to provide cover for the PM’s exit,” a joint statement by the HNP and the MSS said on Monday.
The PM left the scene untouched but the police said they later “pacified the area” with no injuries or fatalities on their side.
This Hospital had been taken over by the HNP and MSS on July 8, after nearly four months of gang control and non-medical activity which human rights groups said worsened the humanitarian crisis. But it is still not yet operational because of the damage inflicted on its facilities, and those of other 30 medical infrastructures in the city.
When the gangs upped their tempo of violence, hospitals were torched, prisons emptied and police stations felled or looted. At one point, the main airport in Porto-Au-Prince was under gang control and so was the main port.
The MSS, now composed of 400 Kenyan police officers and could include troops from Jamaica soon, said on July 27, it had recaptured Auorite Portuaire Nationale (APN) port from gangs.
“As part of the team’s effort to provide security for critical infrastructural sites and transit locations, the MSS has made significant strides in patrolling and clearing road blockades that had been,” the Mission indicated.
Those who have observed gang violence in Haiti, however, say the MSS should expect on-off violent scenes throughout the Mission’s stay in Haiti.
When the Mission touched down in June, for instance, gang leaders announced they had withdrawn to the outskirts of the city.
Some roads previously rendered impassable were reopened and the Mission, together with SWAT teams of the Haitian police easily removed the barricades.
It wasn’t an easy win though. One reason, Himmler Rebu, a former Haitian colonel argued, is that gangs tend to engage in violence as a show of power and withdraw if instructed by their political appendages.
“The criminal gangs operating in Haiti are not autonomous entities. Their visible activities are very harmful to the people and are only the tip of the iceberg. Their real leaders are hidden at the heart of the political-financial complex of the state, associated with foreign entities,” Rebu told the Nation recently.
He argued that while local politicians fan the incitement, gangs earn money and weapons from abroad, often through illicit trade and backing from foreigners.
When in their element, Haitian gangs can be brutal. Last year, they doubled the country’s homicide rate to 41 deaths in every 100,000 inhabitants, according to UN figures.
A report by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime said in March that the gangs are neither fully autonomous nor homogenous.
“Criminal groups in Haiti remain proxies and political tools,” said the report, ‘Violence in Haiti: A continuation of politics by other means?’.
Violent brokers, it said have sustained operations of gangs and their relations with politicians. They use violence when they deem fit, and retract their claws when other means are suitable.
“The gangs seem to be pursuing a strategy of maximum pressure, consisting of attacks interspersed with lulls.
"Rather than a decision taken solely by the gang leaders, our research suggests this may be the result of the relationships that still bind them to their political bosses, who could be setting (fluid) red lines without renouncing the use of violence for political ends.”
When the MSS arrived, Haitian gangs had done two things: They announced unity under their banner of Viv Ansamn coalition.
While that coalition had escalated its control on parts of the city by targeting strategic installations, they also offered a political fig leaf of peace.
In June, gang leader Jimmy Chérizier recorded himself in a video asking the Prime Minister to consolidate the country’s peace and stability, seeing him as an untainted politician. He, however, warned MSS of a confrontation.
On Saturday last week, the MSS was confronted with a new battle in Ganthier, just days after they had retaken the Port from gangs.
The town east of the capital Porto-Au-Prince lies on a main road connecting Haiti with the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Gangs have reportedly used it to bring in supplies or smuggle out drugs.
Otunge told the Nation his troops conquered the main police station in the town, which the Mawozo gang had used to control their business. The police know the gangs might try to retake the station in the future.
