Armed bandits set fire to the home of Frantz Elbé, director general of Haiti’s National Police (PNH), during ongoing attacks on Thursday, according to the Police Union.
The Synapoha union shared the news via X that Elbé’s private residence, located in the Croix des Bouquets neighbourhood, had already been looted.
Regardless, no gang of the Viv Ansanm criminal alliance has claimed responsibility for the attack in Santo 17 on the Cul-de-Sac plain. However, gangs operating in Santo include Santo are “Chen Mechan,” Creole or Hungry Dogs, as well as other gangs in neighbouring Canaan, Terre Noire and Drouillard.
Earlier, some 4,000 inmates escaped from two prisons in a gang breakout that signalled Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier’s control of the Haitian capital. Some residents, speaking through local media, say the police chief escaped from his home just then.
Some say the attack shows the vulnerability of the Haitian police, and Elbé’s alleged flight from home calls into question his agency’s ability to protect the lives and property of Haitians: “There is nothing he can do about the crisis,” Reginald Dumé told The Haitian Times. “It’s his resignation, there is nothing else to do.”
In all, at least 20 police facilities have been vandalised or burnt down in recent violence since 29 February, and gangs have recently set fire to at least 10 police stations and substations as part of the Viv Ansanm criminal coalition’s strategy to gain political power.
The National Network for the Defence of Human Rights reported that bandits have murdered eight people, including six PNH officers.
RNDDH insisted on establishing “a government that does not prey on human rights; making state institutions functional; opening an investigation into the prison escape; dismantling armed gangs; and dismissing the high command of the PNH from their positions.”
