Gangs in Haiti kill 4 soldiers and 4 civilians in bid to seize full control of the capital
Lionel Lazarre, spokesman for Haiti's National Police, told Radio Caraïbes that two soldiers and four civilians were killed in Kenscoff, a once peaceful community on the outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Two other soldiers and an undetermined number of civilians were killed in the community of Pacot inside the capital, he said.
On Wednesday night, the government said that at least four police officers and armed civilians from the community of Canapé-Vert, one of the few neighborhoods not controlled by gangs, were killed in the attacks.
In videos posted on social media, gunmen are seen mutilating several bodies and picking up severed heads as trophies, saying, 'We got the dogs.'
Haiti's transitional presidential council and the prime minister's office condemned the attacks in separate statements and said that multiple people were injured.
'The government reaffirms that the fight against insecurity remains its top priority,' the office said.
Gangs that control at least 85 percent of Port-au-Prince have launched recent attacks on previously peaceful areas that police and armed residents are trying to protect.
More than 260 people were killed in attacks on Kenscoff and Carrefour earlier this year, according to the UN political mission in Haiti.
Haitian police are working alongside a UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police to repel gangs, although they have struggled in their efforts. The mission is underfunded and only has some 1,000 personnel out of the 2,500 envisioned.
More than 5,600 people were killed in Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than one million people homeless, according to the UN
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Arab News
20 minutes ago
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Former POWs in Russia channel their pain into rebuilding lives in Ukraine
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When he wakes up, his heart pounds, anxiety surges — until he realizes he is in the outskirts of Kyiv, where he was forced to move because Russia occupied his hometown of the three-year war drags on, Tarnavskyi is one of more than 5,000 former POWs back in Ukraine rehabilitating with the help of regular counseling. Regardless of any physical injuries that may require attention, psychologists say it is vital to monitor former POWs for years after their release; the cost of war, they say, echoes for generations.A marriage proposalIn a photography studio high above Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, sunlight floods the white walls. After a shoot that lasted several hours Tarnavskyi said the brightness was hurting his eyes, which are still sensitive from years spent in a dark his mood couldn't be dimmed. The girlfriend who waited for his return had just consented to his surprise proposal.'I love you very much, I am very glad that you waited for me,' Tarnavskyi said, holding a thick bouquet of pink roses and a ring. 'You have always been my support, and I hope you will remain so for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?'Tarnavskyi said it was the thought of Tetiana Baieva — whom he met in 2021 — that helped stop him from committing suicide three times during he finds it hard to talk with Baieva about his time in prison. He doesn't want to be after he returned home, he was paranoid, feeling watched — a reaction to constant surveillance in prison. 'If you stepped out of line, they'd (Russians) come and beat you. I still get flashbacks when I see (surveillance) cameras. 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'It just feels less intense.'A 2014 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine found that Israeli ex-POWs and combat veterans tracked over 35 years had higher mortality rates, chronic illnesses and worse self-rated health — conditions partly tied to depression and post-traumatic stress authors of the study said that is why it is crucial to monitor ex-POWs and give them specialized medical and psychological care as they logic rings true to Denys Zalizko, a 21-year-old former POW who has been back in Ukraine for less than three months but is already sure his recovery will take a long time.'You can't fool yourself. Even if you really want to, you will never forget. It will always haunt you,' he artist to beZalizko survived torture, suicide attempts and relentless beatings during roughly 15 months in Russian first time his mother, Maria Zalizko, saw him after his release, she barely recognized him. 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Music unites,' he said, touching the tattoo of a treble clef behind his ear — inked after his return. Even in captivity, he sang quietly to himself, composing songs in his mind about love, home and war. Now he dreams of turning that passion into a career as an artist.'I've become stronger now,' Zalizko said. 'I'm not afraid of death, not afraid of losing an arm or a leg, not afraid of dying instantly. I fear nothing anymore.'
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Ministers to gather at UN for Saudi, France- led conference on Israel, Palestinians
Dozens of ministers will gather at the United Nations on Monday for a delayed conference to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, but the US and Israel are boycotting the event. The 193-member UN General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025. Hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran. The conference aims to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel's security. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told newspaper La Tribune Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday that he will also use the conference this week to push other countries to join France in recognizing a Palestinian state. France intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, President Emmanuel Macron said last week. 'We will launch an appeal in New York so that other countries join us to initiate an even more ambitious and demanding dynamic that will culminate on September 21,' Barrot said, adding that he expected Arab countries by then to condemn Palestinian militants Hamas and call for their disarmament. The conference comes as Israel continues its 22-month war on Gaza. Israel launched the war after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on its southern border. Since then, Israel has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. The US will not attend the conference at the United Nations, said a State Department spokesperson, describing it as 'a gift to Hamas, which continues to reject ceasefire proposals accepted by Israel that would lead to the release of hostages and bring calm in Gaza.' The State Department spokesperson added that Washington voted against the General Assembly last year calling for the conference and would 'not support actions that jeopardize the prospect for a long-term, peaceful resolution to the conflict.' Israel is also not taking part in the conference, 'which doesn't first urgently address the issue of condemning Hamas and returning all of the remaining hostages,' said Jonathan Harounoff, international spokesperson at Israel's UN mission. The UN has long endorsed a vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war with neighboring Arab states. The UN General Assembly in May last year overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council 'reconsider the matter favorably.' The resolution garnered 143 votes in favor and nine against. The General Assembly vote was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member - a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state - after the US vetoed it in the UN Security Council several weeks earlier.
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Arab News
For the sake of peace, America should recognize Palestine
After an unexpected delay due to Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran last month, the UN will finally convene a crucial high-level meeting in New York this week. Scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at the foreign minister level, the meeting aims to discuss the long-promised but still unrealized political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the two-state solution. The idea is not new. It envisions two states — Israel and Palestine — living side by side in peace. While Israel has been recognized by the global community, including Arab nations and the Palestinians themselves, the state of Palestine still lacks full recognition by the UN Security Council. That recognition is a necessary step before Palestine can be admitted as a full UN member. Three permanent members of the UNSC — France, the UK and the US — have so far blocked that recognition. But change is coming. President Emmanuel Macron, whose government is co-chairing the UN conference with Saudi Arabia, has announced that France will recognize Palestine when the UN General Assembly meets this fall. The UK has expressed similar intentions, conditioned on there being a 'wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution.' Without a political horizon for Palestinians and a realistic long-term solution, we will only be kicking the can down the road. Both France and the UK understand the urgent need for an end to the Israeli revenge war on Gaza, accomplishing the release of detainees on both sides, followed immediately by an urgent effort to carry out the more important challenge of finding a political solution. Before the end of September, it is expected that 150 of the UN's 193 member states will have recognized the state of Palestine on the June 4, 1967, borders. This leaves the US as the lone major holdout. Leaders from both major American political parties, including President Donald Trump, have supported the idea of a two-state solution. Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, despite his staunch support for Israel, even visited Ramallah last year and met with senior Palestinian leader Hussein Al-Sheikh. Yet, paradoxically, the US has announced that it does not plan to attend the UN meeting on the two-state solution. The reasons remain unclear. One possibility is that Washington is reacting to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fiery rhetoric. After Macron's announcement, Netanyahu claimed that recognizing Palestine would endanger Israeli security. 'A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel,' he said. 'Let's be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.' Nothing could be further from the truth. If any side is attempting to negate the other, it is Israel seeking to erase Palestine, not the other way round. The current Palestinian leadership, based in Ramallah and led by President Mahmoud Abbas, has consistently opposed the Oct. 7 attacks and Hamas' militaristic approach. This leadership favors diplomacy and has long supported the two-state vision, as outlined in the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence. That declaration explicitly envisioned a Palestinian state next to Israel. If any side is attempting to negate the other, it is Israel seeking to erase Palestine, not the other way round. Daoud Kuttab It is important to recall that Netanyahu himself has historically enabled Hamas, seeing it as a tool to divide and weaken the secular Palestinian national movement. The world now recognizes this cynical strategy for what it is. But Western leaders too often ignore this reality. Recognition of Palestine at the UN is not a 'reward for terror.' It is a recognition of an inalienable right: the right of self-determination. That principle is foundational to the very idea of the UN and the international order it represents. If Washington continues to pay lip service to a two-state solution while boycotting discussions intended to realize it, the implications will be stark. The current position suggests that American leaders — whether consciously or not — are aligning themselves with a vision of Jewish supremacy in the Middle East. That is a dangerous path. It will only prolong the conflict and isolate the US from the global consensus, which is increasingly united against apartheid, occupation and permanent discrimination. Palestinians and Israelis have two — and only two — realistic options: two states for two peoples or one democratic state with equal rights for all. All other ideas mean that America (and any other holdouts on Palestinian recognition) support apartheid by not opposing the current situation. As leading Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem stated in a report back in 2011, Israel has been conducting 'a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.' In 1948, Israel expelled 750,000 Palestinians and has refused to allow them to return ever since. Many of those refugees ended up in Gaza and we have seen what the absence of justice for Palestinians has produced. Continuing on this path of ignoring the Palestinian reality and denying the political rights of Palestinians under whatever religious or domestic political consideration will never work. Neither will the fantasy of permanently expelling or suppressing the 7 million Palestinians living between the river and the sea ever succeed. On May 15, 1948, within minutes of its declaration as a state, the US recognized Israel. It is high time that America recognized the other half of the two-state solution. The sooner Washington genuinely embraces the two-state solution and joins the world in recognizing the state of Palestine — including the principle of it being an independent, democratic nation living peacefully alongside Israel — the sooner peace in the Middle East can become a reality.
