Haiti’s police are being held responsible for a drone strike in Cite Soleil, one of the capital’s most volatile districts.
A lethal drone strike struck a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, resulting in the deaths of at least 11 individuals, including eight children. The government faces accusations as its deployment of control-lagos/” title=”LASTMA Takes Traffic … to New Heights with … Technology in Lagos!”>unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the ongoing conflict against gangs draws mounting criticism.
The attack occurred late Saturday in Cite Soleil, a notoriously dangerous area on the city’s western coastline, during the birthday celebration of Albert Steevenson, also known as Djouma or “King Jouma,” a suspected gang leader.
This neighborhood is reportedly under the control of the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) gang coalition, which the United States designated as a “foreign terrorist” organization in May.
Jimmy Cherizier, alias Barbecue, a prominent leader within the coalition, vowed retaliation following the strike.
Among the victims was Claudia Bobrun’s eight-year-old daughter, who was fatally wounded. Claudia shared a distressing video with The Associated Press showing her daughter lying in a pool of blood, overwhelmed with grief.
Another child, four-year-old Merika, was playing with friends around 8 p.m. in the Simon Pele neighborhood of Cite Soleil when the kamikaze drone detonated.
Merika’s grandmother, Mimose Duclaire, recounted to the Miami Herald, “I heard a loud explosion while they were playing. When I looked, I saw her knees shattered and a severe head injury.”
Tragically, Merika succumbed to her injuries en route to the hospital.
The National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), a local human rights organization, attributed the blasts to two kamikaze drones deployed by the Haitian National Police’s special task force.
Requests for comment from both the Haitian police spokesperson and the prime minister’s office went unanswered.
RNDDH estimates the death toll conservatively, reporting at least four gang members and three civilians among the casualties.
Facing escalating gang violence, Haitian authorities have struggled to regain control over Port-au-Prince, where gangs dominate roughly 80% of the city, according to United Nations data. To counter this, the government began employing drones earlier this year to enhance their operational capabilities.
The first public acknowledgment of drone use came in June when local police shared footage on Facebook showing an assault on a gang leader. However, it is believed that drone operations commenced as early as March.
These drones were provided by Canadian law enforcement, which has since condemned Haiti’s use of explosive devices on the UAVs, stating it violates Canadian laws and prior agreements that prohibited their use in armed conflict.
In a July interview with the Financial Times, Fritz Jean, then head of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, defended the drone program amid rising concerns about deploying military-grade weapons in a context not officially classified as armed conflict.
Jean remarked, “Our forces required aerial support to enable police and military entry into gang-controlled zones. If this isn’t war, I’m unsure what is.”
On Sunday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Laurent Saint-Cyr, Haiti’s current transitional presidential council president. They concurred on the necessity for immediate international intervention to restore security, as stated in a UN press release.
A UN report released in August revealed that between April and June, 1,520 people were killed and over 600 injured in Haiti. The violence has displaced approximately 1.3 million Haitians-about 10% of the nation’s population-forcing them from their homes amid the turmoil engulfing the capital.
