Gunmen on Thursday opened fire on a UN helicopter as it prepared to land in Port-au-Prince, marking the latest attack on the Haitian capital as violence escalates again.
No one was injured as multiple gunshots hit the helicopter that was carrying three crew members and 15 passengers, according to a UN source who was not authorized to confirm the incident. The helicopter landed safely.
The attack comes five months after Haiti’s main airport reopened following a gang attack that forced it to close for nearly three months.
The violence has spread to nearby areas including Arcahaie, where up to 50 gang members were killed this week after an attack on the coastal town northwest of the capital. Among the dead are at least twelve gunmen who drowned after the boat they were traveling in capsized, a government official said on Thursday.
While most were killed by police, a group of gunmen drowned on Wednesday after their boat hit a rock while delivering ammunition to rebels attacking the town of Arcahaie, said Wilner Réné of Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency.
He told Radio Caraïbes that the attacks began on Monday, with gunmen setting fire to homes and cars in Arcahaie.
When the bandits ran out of ammunition, they hid in nearby areas and were rescued by residents and the police, he said.
The attack is still ongoing, and Réné warned that the police on the scene need to be immediately reinforced by the army and the special police unit.
The attack is blamed on a coalition of gangs called Viv Ansanm, which has also targeted communities in Port-au-Prince in recent days. This attack left more than 10,000 people in the capital in just one week, according to a report released on Thursday by the UN’s International Organization for Migration. More than half of those left homeless are housed in 14 shelters, including schools. The rest stay with relatives for a while.
The uptick in gang violence comes months after a UN-backed operation led by Kenyan police began to crack down on the rise of gang violence, which controls more than 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. More than 700,000 people have been displaced, and thousands have been killed.
The US government and senior Haitian officials have warned that the Kenyan-led mission is understaffed and underfunded and have called for a UN peacekeeping mission to replace it.