Buenos Aires, Mar. 19, (dpa/GNA) – In the crisis-hit country of Haiti, violence is increasingly spreading to the previously largely peaceful neighbourhoods of the upper class.
Gang members advanced into the Laboule and Thomassin neighbourhoods in the south of the capital Port-au-Prince on Monday, according to several local media reports. They looted several houses and a bank branch.
When the police brought the neighbourhoods back under control, at least 10 bodies were found in the streets, the reports said.
The crisis in Haiti has continued to escalate in recent weeks. The Caribbean state’s powerful gangs recently prevented interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning from a trip abroad.
Henry subsequently resigned and the country now has no functioning government. A presidential council made up of representatives from various parties and social groups is to temporarily take over the official duties.
The United Nations has said that gangs now have around 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince under their control.
According to UN figures, around 362,000 Haitians have been displaced within the country, more than half of them children.
Almost half of Haiti’s approximately 11 million inhabitants are suffering from acute hunger.