PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Gangs stormed a police station on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital overnight into Saturday, a police union told AFP, as a transitional ruling council struggled to restore order in the violence-wracked Caribbean nation.

The police station is located in the town of Gressier, south of Port-au-Prince, said Lionel Lazarre of the Haitian police union.

Videos shared on social media showed civilians armed with assault rifles inside the police building. Several vehicles in the building’s parking lot were afire.

Reached by AFP, local authorities were unable to say how many people were hurt in the attack.

A resident of Gressier, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the fighting lasted several hours and that the police had to retreat in the face of “the bandits’ striking power”.

Local residents were forced to flee their homes in the morning because of the violence, the woman said.

Another police union, SPNH-17, said in a statement on social media that gangs now control 25 police stations and branches in the country.

Haiti has had no president since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in 2021 and it has no sitting Parliament. Its last election was in 2016, and the new transitional council is still struggling to assert its authority.

Meanwhile a decree seen by AFP Friday revealed that the transitional council will rotate its leadership every five months following internal political strife among its members.

The new council came to power last month as Haiti’s unpopular and unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry submitted his formal resignation after armed gangs rose up and demanded his ouster.

Several days after the council’s nine members were sworn in, they chose politician Edgard Leblanc Fils from among themselves to head the long-awaited governing body.

But his appointment to the role, whose main purpose is coordination, was not without internal controversy.

Leblanc Fils and three other members of the council announced a political alliance with the intention to vote as a bloc, a move that was particularly significant, given only seven of the council’s nine members have voting rights.

Among the bloc’s intended decisions was appointment of former sports minister Fritz Belizaire as prime minister, an unexpected move which outraged the other three voting members.

In order to “avoid any dysfunction in the council”, the decree seen by
AFP said, the body had “proceeded by consensus to a rotating presidency”.

It also agreed that its most important decisions, including appointment of a prime minister and a Government, would be made by a majority of five votes out of seven.

Leblanc Fils will be leader of the council until October 7, to be followed sequentially by members Smith Augustin, Leslie Voltaire and Louis Gerald Gilles.

“Cohesion within the transitional presidential council is an overriding necessity to guarantee a solution to the multidimensional crisis facing the Haitian nation,” the decree read.

Haiti, a nation of 11.6 million people, has suffered from poverty, political instability and natural disasters for decades. It is the poorest country in the Americas.

Its situation plummeted starting in late February as powerful and well-armed gangs that control most of the capital Port-au-Prince and much of the country went on a rampage they said was aimed at toppling Prime Minister Henry.

In recent days, the United States has flown 21 sorties into Port-au-Prince, delivering cargo and civilian contractors, according to information published by the US Southern Command on Friday.

The objective is to help prepare Haiti for deployment of a United Nations-backed multinational force
— to be led by Kenya
— which is tasked with helping its beleaguered police rein in the criminal gangs.