Stoned and Burned – How a Civil Movement Fights Back Against Haiti’s Gangs Woman dies on an escalator at Bangkok airport – leg amputated

In the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, shots ring out, roadblocks burn and corpses lie on the side of the road. Rival gangs have been battling each other on the open streets of the Caribbean country for months, with civilians repeatedly subjected to attacks, rapes and murders. With no government, weak police and increasing poverty, many of them see only one option: to take up arms themselves.

The rise of Bwa Kale

What initially began as isolated lynch mobs of suspected gang members has since May turned into an organized vigilante group. It is called “Bwa Kale” which means “peeled tree bark” in Haiti Creole. It is a call for locals to arm themselves with sharpened wooden sticks, stones, machetes and other tools to track down gang members, the Haitian Times wrote in May.

It seems to have its origins in an incident on April 24, when an angry mob brutally took the law into their own hands. After police apprehended 13 suspected gang members during a traffic stop, an angry mob intervened and snatched the men from police custody. She then collected them in the street, beat and stoned them. Videos circulating online show the 13 suspects lying on the ground as police watch without intervening. Some of the alleged gang members are still begging for mercy – in vain. Videos taken moments later show the men on fire alive under kerosene-doused tires.

According to witnesses, the men belonged to the Kraze Barye gang. That day, in the middle of the night, they broke into homes in several neighborhoods, where they robbed and assaulted the residents.

traces of violence

The gang’s terror has dragged on for months, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Tens of thousands of people have already had to flee their neighborhoods as a result of such attacks. Not everyone manages to escape due to gang roadblocks, fear of kidnapping or simply lack of financial resources. Those left behind are mercilessly at the mercy of the gangs’ violence. AP portrayed some of them in the slum Cité Soleil.

For example, Dieu Frisdeline, who was raped by a group of gang members, as she tearfully tells us.

The lovely Benjamin shows the head of her four-year-old child, on which is the scar of a machete. Her family has also been attacked by a gang. While she and her son survived, her partner was killed and set on fire.

Rose Dufon has a scar on her shoulder. She was nine months pregnant when she was shot, beaten and raped by gang members. Her unborn child did not survive the attack.

Januelle Datka and her 15-year-old daughter both became pregnant after being raped by gang members.

Lenlen Desir Fondala accidentally got caught in the crossfire and lost her index finger to a stray bullet.

The local population has had enough and that is why more and more citizens have taken up arms themselves since April 24. They can reach them without any problems: according to a report by the Australian broadcaster ABC News, Kwa Bale leaders run through the streets in broad daylight handing out machetes.

The population strikes back

But they don’t just use the guns for defense: At least 160 suspected gang members were chased, lynched and burned alive between April 24 and May 24, according to the Haitian organization CARDH. But even before Kwa Bale was formed, at least 78 people had been executed.

The gang members seemed to have taken note of the resistance of the population: almost no kidnappings were reported between April and May, the CARDH writes in its report. Between January and March, it recorded another 389 kidnappings.

However, that is no reason to be happy. The organization warns of possible reprisals by the gangs, as happened around April 19. On that day, in the village of Source-Matelas, 40 people were murdered or kidnapped by the “5 Segond” gang and dozens of houses were burned down. The attack was thought to be revenge for the Citizens’ Brigade, which was deployed last November after 12 villagers were massacred by the gang.

And although the number of kidnappings has dropped, Kwa Bale does not bring safety. Innocent people are still being killed – even by the civil movement itself. As Rosy Auguste Ducena of the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) told France24, innocent people are always victims of lynchings.

She has heard of cases where women have been executed for allegedly having romantic relationships with gang members. There are even photos on social media calling for a hunt for gang members’ wives. As Ducena criticizes, the suspects are subjected to only superficial interrogations before they are finally simply murdered.

Joaniska, 23, told ABC News her husband simply walked home with no identification. That alone was enough to suspect him of being a gang member, as Joaniska puts it:

Less than two weeks ago, Joaniska gave birth to their son. Now she has to raise him alone. And that while, according to the UN, almost half of the eleven million Haitians suffer from acute hunger.

“The world is failing the Haitians”

The international community must do much more to help Haiti, says UNICEF director Catherine Russell. “The world is failing the Haitians,” she said in a statement in New York on Thursday after a visit to the Caribbean country. International solidarity with Haiti has largely faded since the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake; the situation is worse than ever, said the head of the children’s charity. So far, less than a quarter of the $720 million (650 million Swiss francs) the UN has requested for humanitarian aid in Haiti this year has been received.

“The current security situation is unacceptable,” Russell said. She reported brutal gang violence, including systematic rapes. In addition, there would be hunger, poverty, cholera and climate change.

Since the unsolved assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in the summer of 2021, there has been an interim government. However, the power vacuum is widening as a result of the crumbling government under interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry. No elections have taken place since 2019, and as a result there is no single elected official at any level of government.

The gangs are now taking advantage of this dysfunctional state apparatus. As early as October, Henry therefore requested the help of an international troop – which has not yet happened.

In Port-au-Prince, UN human rights expert William O’Neill called the deployment of an international force “essential” and called for the implementation of an arms embargo against Haiti decided by the Security Council. “The human rights situation is dramatic, all rights are being violated,” he said at the end of a ten-day visit on Wednesday. His words are warning:

(With material from the sda ​​and dpa news agencies)