3 Haitian police officers and 2 civilians killed as gangs overrun a central region

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Three Haitian police officers and two civilians were killed in the country’s central region, where gang violence has surged, the government and a police union said Wednesday.

The officers were members of a specialized unit known as UDMO, which is largely activated during protests and disturbances.

A video shared on social media show gunmen dragging the bodies of at least two officers near a burning armored vehicle as heavy gunfire fills the air.

SPNH-17, a local police union, said that two “brave citizens” fighting alongside the slain officers in Artibonite also were killed.

It called on the government to better protect police as it warned they were preparing to revolt.

“The government does not give the police any importance. If they took this seriously, they would have made the means and support available to the police and the military to end the insecurity,” the union said. “Too many police officers have fallen.”

Haiti’s transitional presidential council said that the government was mobilizing all necessary resources to investigate the killings and honor the memory of those slain.

From October 2024 until the end of June, more than 1,000 people were killed, 213 injured and 620 kidnapped in Haiti’s Artibonite and Central departments, according to the U.N. human rights office.

A Kenyan-led, U.N.-backed mission is helping Haiti’s National Police to quell gang violence, but officers often are overwhelmed by powerful gangs with military-grade weapons. At least two Kenyan officers have been killed this year, both in Artibonite.