Haitian gang attacks town, kills teacher, kidnaps residents and burns buildings

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – A Haitian gang attacked a small town northwest of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, killing, kidnapping and burning down buildings as gang violence devours the Caribbean nation.

Gunmen opened fired on the streets of Bassin Bleu around noon on Thursday, killing at least one high school teacher, according to local leader Rodlet Jean Baptiste, speaking on Radio Caraibes.

The surge of violence stirred panic in the community as gang members burned the police station and several public and private buildings and looted a credit union.

Baptiste blamed the attack on the gang Kokorat San Ras, which has a firm grip on the region. Haitian National Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment and more information on the attack.

According to a recent report by the United Nations, “Kokorat San Ras, despite its limited numbers, is also a very brutal gang” that operates in the Artibonite region. Its roughly 20 members have “committed acts of extreme violence, forcing people to abandon large areas of cropland and threatening agricultural production.”

It was the first attack of this scale in the community, which has largely gone untouched by spiraling gang violence plaguing Haiti. Such brutal attacks on rural communities have grown increasingly common as gangs have gradually expanded their control across the country.

Just last week, gunmen threw a molotov cocktail into an police armored vehicle, killing three people outside the capital. And days before that dozens of people were massacred in a small fishing village, something a local official said “highlights the urgent need for effective state intervention.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned such attacks, saying he was “alarmed by the levels of violence rocking Haiti.”

But years of attempts by U.N. parties and world leaders, including an international police mission, to reel in the gangs have largely been unsuccessful in reducing the violence.