Haitian police notch uncommon win towards gangs after reclaiming hijacked ship

Haiti’s Nationwide Police company says that it has recovered a hijacked cargo ship laden with rice following a gunbattle with gangs that lasted greater than 5 hours.

Two cops had been injured and an undetermined variety of gang members had been killed within the shootout that occurred Saturday off the coast of the capital, Port-au-Prince, authorities stated in an announcement.

It was a uncommon victory for an underfunded police division that has struggled to quell gang violence following a spate of assaults that started Feb. 29.

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Police stated within the assertion Sunday that these chargeable for the hijacking had been members of two gangs, named the 5 Seconds and the Taliban gang. They stated gunmen seized the transport ship Magalie on Thursday because it departed the port of Varreux.

Radio Télé Métronome reported that the gangs kidnapped everybody aboard the ship and stole some 10,000 sacks of rice out of the 60,000 sacks it was carrying.

The ship was headed to the northern coastal metropolis of Cap-Haïtien.

Additionally on Sunday, on-line information web site Radio graphie reported that the Taliban gang used a entrance loader to demolish a police station within the Port-au-Prince suburb of Canaan the place at the least 4 cops had been killed in a current assault. The station was not operational.

The latest gunbattle between police and gangs comes greater than a month after gunmen started concentrating on key authorities infrastructure. They’ve burned down a number of police stations, opened hearth on the principle worldwide airport that is still closed and stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons, releasing greater than 4,000 inmates.

The continuing violence pressured Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce he would resign as soon as a transitional presidential council is fashioned.

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Henry was in Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police power from the East African nation when the assaults started and stays locked out of Haiti.