Police and civilians in private militias have killed 28 people identified as members of Haiti's criminal gangs. The murders were carried out during the night leading up to Tuesday.
In an operation, the police stopped a truck where suspected gang members were traveling in the affluent suburb of Petion-Ville outside the capital Port-au-Prince at 2 am. The police opened fire and killed several of them in the vehicle, according to the Haitian police spokesperson Lionel Lazarre.
Another vehicle was stopped in central Port-au-Prince, and there too the police shot at the passengers. Those who tried to flee were stopped and killed by the police and militias.
Criminal and heavily armed gangs control around 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince and undermine the central authority with violence in large parts of Haiti. An international police operation, led by Kenya, has had little success in attempts to stabilize the situation.
Haiti has previously experienced severe clashes between civilian militias and suspected gang criminals, where militias capture and burn suspected gang members to death.
