Enlarge image
Burnt out car in Port-au-Prince
Photo: Ralph Tedy Erol / REUTERS
According to media reports, several buildings in the government district in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince were attacked.
The suspected bandits' targets on Friday evening included the National Palace, the Interior Ministry and a regional police headquarters, Haitian and US media reported.
Social media users reported shots fired.
The powerful gangs in the Caribbean country want to overthrow the interim government.
Violence has been paralyzing Port-au-Prince for over a week.
Police stations were attacked and there was also shooting at the airport;
As a result, all flights were canceled.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, the health system is on the verge of collapse.
According to him, more than 4,500 prisoners escaped during attacks on two prisons a week ago.
According to a report by the AyiboPost portal, the notoriously understaffed police hardly had any presence on the streets of the capital.
The humanitarian situation in Haiti was already very tense.
According to the United Nations, almost half of the Caribbean country's eleven million residents suffer from acute hunger.
Various brutal gangs controlled a total of around 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.
Now the two main armed groups joined forces.
Its leader, Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier, threatened civil war if interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry did not resign.
Prime Minister cannot return
Henry had agreed to hold elections by the end of August 2025.
They would be the first in Haiti since he took over government shortly after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.
The US government called on him to speed up the process towards elections.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for financing a multinational security mission in Haiti that had already been approved by the UN Security Council.
At the moment, Henry is in Puerto Rico.
After a trip abroad, he has apparently not returned to his country due to the security situation.
msk/AP/dpa