Mayor: At least 12 killed in Haiti as gangs vie for control

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — At least 12 people have been killed and numerous homes set on fire in a community near Haiti’s capital as gangs fight to control more territory, a mayor told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The incident occurred in the small town of Cabaret northwest of Port-au-P-Prince at nearly midnight on Tuesday, said Mayor Joseph Jeanson Guillaume.

The community recently had appointed local residents to serve as guards given a spike in violence across Haiti, but they were overpowered by gangs with machine guns, he said.

“There was nothing they were able to do to defend themselves,” Guillaume said. “This is a terrible incident.”

Pictures and videos shared on social media show the bodies of the mutilated victims strewn outside their homes and fires burning through the night, consuming at least 17 homes.

The killings are the latest blamed on gangs who have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.