Newly formed Haiti security task force strikes stronghold of notorious gang warlord
A specialized Haitian police task force hit the stronghold of the country's most notorious warlord on Saturday, resulting in the deaths of several gang members, the country's prime minister said.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé confirmed the strike in the lower Delmas 6 neighborhood on his personal X account, as rumors swirled in both Port-au-Prince and in the United States that the target of the attack, Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier, a former police officer who has become the country's top gang chieftain, was either seriously injured or dead.
But soon after the attack, Chérizier released a video in which he confirmed he is still alive, and didn't appear to be gravely injured. He said police used explosive drones in an attempt to kill him.
Video images shared on social media showed the remnants of drones reportedly used by police.
In another post on X, the prime minister's office referred to the strike as 'a large-scale operation' and that several gang members had been killed.
'Security forces are mobilized, and a state of readiness has been declared,' the prime minister he said on the government's X account. 'The country will not yield to terror. Haitian people, keep hope alive: the government stands at your side in these difficult times. Victory against the gangs is on its way. Haiti will take control of its destiny once again.'
The post also noted that the task force carrying out the operation had been created by the government and the Transitional Presidential Council in less than 48 hours. Several sources said that the current police chief, Rameau Normil, was not told of the operation, which was carried out by others.
A former police chief who became a gang leader, Chérizier was one of the principal chieftains of both the G-9 gang coalition and the powerful Viv Ansanm alliance, which made its deadly debut a year ago on Feb. 28. Gang members burned schools and police stations, raided the country's two largest prisons and led insurgencies in many parts of the capital. More than 5,600 Haitians died in gang-related violence last year, according to the United Nations.
Saturday's operation came after days of gang attacks that have destroyed more than three dozen schools just this year, and forced another mass exodus of people from neighborhoods in the capital. It also came amid ongoing tensions between the prime minister's office and the police hierarchy, and an open conflict within the police itself that has led to gangs further mobilizing to wreak havoc.
The gangs now control as much as 90% of metropolitan Port-au-Prince.
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