PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) — The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) says more than 100 gang members have been killed in Haiti in a three-day period, as the armed gangs have stepped up attacks and attempted last Tuesday to invade one of the capital’s upscale neighbourhoods, Pétion-Ville.

The Haitian National Police (PNH) said it is maintaining its security operations also in Vivy Mitchell and Belleville in the commune of Pétion-ville as the authorities seek to dismantle the operations of the gang that have, since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, seized a significant position of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

RNDDH executive director Pierre Espérance said that in a number of cases, the police have fatally wounded the armed individuals with members of the public setting fire to the bodies.

He said in other cases, it is the residents themselves who have killed the bandits to protect themselves.

RNDDH said that among the 90 deaths reported on Tuesday, 25 occurred in the Canapé Verte neighbourhood and 15 on the Pan-American Highway near the Oasis Hotel in Pétion-Ville. It said last Thursday, six gang members were killed between Delmas 57 and 59 and the Christ-Roi neighbourhood.

“Justice is sick. How can we explain that since 2018, you have all these massacres, all these rapes, these kidnappings and that there is no judicial process ? Justice has completely collapsed,” he said.

Last Thursday, the gang leader Jimmy Chérizier alias “Barbecue”, a former police officer, posted a video confirming that he was present when the gang members clashed with the police, and that while two of his most trusted had been killed, he managed to escape.

The new Protector of Citizens, Wilner Morin, said the country is in total anarchy.

“We are in a situation where…the population is so backed up against the wall that they feel like they can take justice into their own hands.

“It’s very serious,” Morin added.

Known as the “Bwa Kale” movement, acts of vigilantism by unorganised groups of Haitians and self-defence groups are on the rise, with the Human Rights Branch of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), noting in a September 2024 report that the groups often operate “with the support or approval of police officers”, the report said.

In such incidents, victims are mutilated with machetes, stoned, decapitated, burned alive, or buried alive, the report said, also raising concerns about extrajudicial killings by the police.

Last week, director general of World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he is “deeply concerned by the escalation of gang violence in Port-au-Prince and its impact on health.