‘This is effectively a civil war’: despair in Haiti as gangs step up assault on capital

Link : The Guardian website
Client : The Guardian
Category : Journalism, Writing, Production

The storming of Solino began in the dead of night with dozens of gang fighters wielding Kalashnikovs and machetes marauding into one of the last bastions of safety in Haiti’s beleaguered capital, Port-au-Prince.

As teenage gunmen torched houses and fired wildly into the air, residents fled on foot, carrying whatever they could take before the area was captured: children, bundles of clothing, suitcases, chairs.

Felicen Dorcevah, a 45-year-old boxing coach, leapt from his bed in a neighbouring zone called Kokiyo, and watched a sea of displaced people surge into his community in search of shelter.

Read more:

Photos : Odelyn Joseph