PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s National Police are facing mounting criticism over why authorities failed to prevent a recent gang attack in which 47 people were killed and more than 50 kidnapped.
Police spokesperson Garry Desrosiers took only a handful of questions from journalists at a news conference Thursday, just days after gangs attacked Kenscoff, a once-peaceful farming community nestled in the hills near Port-au-Prince.
Asked what police are planning to do about those kidnapped, Desrosiers said he could not answer that question publicly.
“We cannot talk about any plans,” he said.
One gang leader has threatened to execute all the hostages if any gang members are killed as police work to secure Kenscoff.
Desrosiers expressed condolences to all those affected by the violent attack launched late Sunday.
New burst of violence leaves Haitians homeless
More than 2,600 people were displaced, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration, and anger and frustration are mounting. Desrosiers said police are working on helping them return home, but he did not provide specifics.
One journalist questioned whether there was any intelligence gathered prior to the attack, with Desrosiers responding that authorities have been working on gathering intelligence.
He added that police are aware that one gang leader is threatening to attack Tabarre, a neighborhood within Port-au-Prince where the U.S. embassy is located.
“I’m not in a position to give you detailed information,” Desrosiers said.
Vladimir Paraison, head of Haiti’s National Police, was not present at the news conference. He recently defended security measures in Kenscoff and said that an investigation was underway to establish the truth about the attack “whether due to complicity or negligence.”
Between January and August this year, security operations had managed to reduce violence in Kenscoff by 66% prior to Sunday’s attack, according to the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.
U.S. deports more people to Haiti as violence surges
As Haiti reels from the attack, the U.S. on Thursday deported dozens more people to the troubled country.
Among the deportees was a professional boxer, who said he was born in the Bahamas.
“I don’t know anything about Haiti,” said Jay Dabelus. “I wasn’t born here.”
Dabelus said he left the Bahamas when he was about 6 years old and had been living for more than 20 years in the United States before he was detained.
As he spoke, he looked at his surroundings in northern Haiti.
“It is nice here, but I’m trying to move on,” he said. “I don’t have any resources, family members or people to aid me.”
Thursday’s flight arrived in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien because the main international airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is deemed too dangerous.
Aboard the flight were more than 50 people including two young children, according to Kerlande Desauguste, an official with Haiti’s National Office of Migration.
“We are deeply concerned about the safety of Haitians in Haiti and those being returned to a country where the government cannot currently guarantee their protection,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a U.S.-based humanitarian group.
Thursday marked the second deportation flight since Temporary Protected Status ended for some 350,000 Haitians in the United States.
The first one arrived on Aug. 20, carrying more than 160 people, including TPS holders.
Like previous deportees, the ones who arrived on Thursday covered their faces for safety.
Gang violence has displaced a record of nearly 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,050 people were reported killed from January to June, according to U.N. statistics.
Armed men control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and swaths of land in Haiti’s central region and beyond, with poverty and hunger deepening as gang violence persists.
