Residents in Haiti's capital flee homes as gangs expand control

27/10/2024 6:29

        A gang attack in Port-au-Prince forced residents to flee their homes on Saturday as the gangs operating in and around the Haitian capital ramp up
        attacks on areas they do not yet control.
        
        Smoke from gunfights billowed above the capital's Solino neighborhood, where fleeing residents strapped mattresses, furniture, cooking supplies and other possessions to trucks.
        
        Others fled on foot carrying what belongings they could.
        
        Gangs have been escalating their attacks on a number of towns in and around the capital, where much of the city and its suburbs are under the control of various violent armed groups united under a common alliance known as Viv Ansanm.
        
        In Solino, thousands of residents have been displaced in recent days, including people who had previously been displaced from other neighborhoods, the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) said in a press conference on Friday.
        
        The total number of displaced people in Haiti has doubled in the past three months to almost 700,000, the WFP said.