Two men in Haiti were hacked to death by a mob who thought they were buying ammunition or guns for gangs that have terrorized the country, police said on Saturday.
Police said the crowd snatched the men from police custody after they were found with about US$20,000 and the equivalent of about US$43,000 in Haitian cash in their car, along with two pistols and a box of ammunition.
Carrying that amount of cash was considered suspicious, and residents assumed it was a weapons purchase for gangs.
Photo: Reuters
The killings happened on Friday in a town near the provincial city of Mirebalais. Police appeared to fire warning shots into the air to try to prevent the killings, but the mob killed them anyway.
One of the victims was a police officer, and the other was a former guard, according to their identification documents.
The killings underscored how outnumbered police are in Haiti, and the anger of Haitians after months of killings, kidnappings and armed attacks by the country’s gangs.
In the past month, gangs have been targeting key infrastructure across the capital, Port-au-Prince, including police stations, the main international airport that remains closed and Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
On Thursday, William O’Neill, the UN rights expert for Haiti, said the conflict-wracked Caribbean nation now needs between 4,000 and 5,000 international police to help tackle the “catastrophic” gang violence.
Canada has sent about 70 soldiers to Jamaica to train troops from Caribbean nations who are due to take part in a UN-authorized mission to Haiti, the Canadian Department of National Defence said on Saturday.
Kenya announced last year it would lead the force, which is designed to help national police fight powerful gangs in Haiti where spiraling violence has fueled a humanitarian disaster.
The initiative has been tied up in Kenyan court challenges ever since, effectively putting the mission on hold.
The Canadian troops, from the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, are to provide training on core peace-keeping skills and combat first aid, the defense ministry said in a statement. French is one of Haiti’s two official languages.
The troops are due to stay in Jamaica for an initial period of a month and are to train about 330 troops from Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas.
Canada last month said that it would give C$80.5 million (US$59.6 million) to support the deployment of the Kenyan-led mission.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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