Suspected Haitian gang members exchange fire with Marines protecting US Embassy in Port-au-Prince

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A group of suspected Haitian gang members fired this week on American forces protecting the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, a spokesman said Saturday, in an incident that highlighted the tense security situation in the Caribbean nation.

Capt. Steven J. Keenan, a spokesman for the U.S. Marines, wrote in an email that the shooting, which came to light this weekend, happened Thursday, adding that the Marines returned fire. No Marines were hurt in the attack.

Haitian police were not immediately available to comment on the exchange of fire.

Gangs control 90% of Haiti’s capital, where they extort businesses and fight for territory, using heavy weaponry.

The United States continues to operate an embassy in Haiti, but in recent years the State Department has issued numerous warnings telling Americans not to travel there, due to the risk of kidnappings, crimes, terrorist activity and civil unrest.

According to the United Nations, gang violence has displaced more than 1.3 million Haitians from their homes in recent years.

Security in the nation of nearly 12 million people has deteriorated rapidly since 2021, when President Jovenel Moise was a ssassinated in his home by mercenaries.

The president’s murder has generated a power vacuum that politicians in the nation have struggled to fill, and no elections have been held to replace Moise.

In late September, the United Nations Security Council voted to create a gang suppression force of about 5,500 troops that will be deployed to Haiti to fight the nation’s heavily armed criminal groups.

A smaller force of police officers from Kenya has struggled to contain gangs, which killed 5,600 people last year, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.