PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — In the latest attack in Haiti’s capital as violence flares again, gangs opened fire on a United Nations helicopter Thursday, forcing it to land in Port-au-Prince.
A U.N. official not authorized to confirm the incident said several shots were fired at the helicopter carrying three crew members and 15 passengers, but no one was injured. Officials said the helicopter departed Port-au-Prince before the attack and landed safely.
The attack came five months after Haiti’s main international airport reopened after being forced to close for nearly three months following coordinated attacks by gangs.
The violence has spilled over into neighboring areas, including Alkaie, where around 50 suspected gang members were killed in an attack on the coastal town just northwest of the capital this week. Government officials said Thursday that the dead included at least a dozen gunmen who drowned when their boat capsized.
Wilner Rene, head of Haiti’s civil protection agency, said most were killed by police, but on Wednesday a gunman drowned when his boat crashed into a reef while delivering ammunition to a gang raiding the town of Alkaie. It is said that he did.
He told Radio Caraïbes that the attacks began on Monday, with armed groups burning houses and cars across Alcaie.
He said the gangs ran out of ammunition and hid in nearby areas, where they were chased out by residents and police.
As the attacks continue, Rene warned police officers on the ground that reinforcements from soldiers and special police units are urgently needed.
The attack was attributed to a coalition of gangs called Viv Ansamm, which has also targeted communities in Port-au-Prince in recent days. These attacks have displaced more than 10,000 people in the capital in just one week, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration. More than half of the homeless people were packed into 14 temporary shelters, including schools. The rest are temporarily staying with relatives.
The spike in gang violence comes just months after a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police began to quell a surge in gang violence, which controls more than 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. More than 700,000 people were left homeless and thousands were killed.
U.S. and Haitian government officials have warned that the Kenyan-led mission is understaffed and underfunded and called for it to be replaced by a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
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Koto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico
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