PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — A week of clashes between rival gangs in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince has left at least 89 people dead and dozens injured, a human rights group said Wednesday.
The fresh violence, coupled with soaring food prices and fuel shortages all add to a brutal downward spiral in the security situation in the city.
The unrest erupted on July 7 between two rival factions in Cite Soleil, an impoverished and densely populated neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
“At least 89 people were killed and 16 others are missing,” the National Human Rights Defense Network said in a statement, adding that another 74 people sustained gunshot or knife wounds.
International humanitarian organizations have struggled to deliver crucial food supplies to the affected areas as well to provide medical care to the victims.
Mumuza Muhindo, head of the local mission of Doctors Without Borders, on Wednesday urged all combatants to allow medics to safely access Brooklyn, an area of Cite Soleil most affected by the violence.
Muhindo said his colleagues have seen burned and rotting corpses on along a road leading to that neighborhood.
“It’s a real battlefield,” Muhindo said. “It’s impossible to estimate how many people have been killed.”
© Agence France-Presse