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15 Dead In Shooting Was ‘Terrorist Attack,’ Haiti Govt Says

    Advertisement Fifteen people shot to death this week in Haiti, including a journalist and an opposition activist, were killed in a “terrorist attack”, … Continue reading 15 Dead In Shooting Was ‘Terrorist Attack,’ Haiti Govt Says

By Nebianet Usaini
Updated July 2, 2021
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(FILES) In this file photo Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) is celebrating 50 years across the world and 30 years in Haiti, as workers are seen outside at the Martissant Hospital, in Martissant, Haiti on May 31, 2021. – Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on June 28, 2021 it had closed a hospital in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince after it was hit by gunfire at the weekend — a gloomy sign of an escalation of violence in the city. Luckily, no one was wounded in the attack on the clinic in Port-au-Prince’s Martissant neighborhood, which has been run by the Nobel peace prize-winning charity since 2006 and provides critical care to the poor. (Photo by Valerie Baeriswyl / AFP)
(FILES) In this file photo Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) is celebrating 50 years across the world and 30 years in Haiti, as workers are seen outside at the Martissant Hospital, in Martissant, Haiti on May 31, 2021.  (Photo by Valerie Baeriswyl / AFP)

 

 

Fifteen people shot to death this week in Haiti, including a journalist and an opposition activist, were killed in a “terrorist attack”, the country’s prime minister said Thursday.

The victims were slain in the capital Port-au-Prince in violence that authorities initially blamed on revenge attacks after the death of a police officer.

Violence has been sharply on the rise in Haiti this year, with gun fights between rival groups prompting many residents of poor districts of the city to flee their homes.

“We are appalled at the terrorist attack that has been committed by a terrorist group calling themselves Fantom 509,” Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph said.

The group emerged in March when some police officers and former Haitian National Police members got together to call for the founding of a union — a demand that was subsequently granted.

Hours before the overnight shooting spree, police union spokesman Guerby Geffrard was killed in Port-au-Prince.

Haitian Police Chief Leon Charles intially said the shootings — whose victims included reporter Diego Charles and political activist Antoinette Duclair — were in revenge for Geffrard’s killing.

“It was Fantom 509 who did this,” Charles said Thursday.

Addressing the group directly, he said: “Instead of letting justice do its job, you wanted to carry out your own justice — but the police, the country, and the international community will not accept this.”

Authorities have yet to offer proof to support the accusations, and Charles’ statements sparked criticism from journalists and civil rights organizations who doubt their truth.

Undermined by insecurity and political instability, Haiti is struggling to emerge from a string of seemingly never-ending crises, which of late have resulted in a surge in kidnappings and gang violence.

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