Vigilantes vs. Street Gangs in Haiti—Fighting Fire with Fire

vigilantes vs. street gangs

VIGILANTES VS. STREET GANGS. For two years, 7 gang coalitions—with 200 affiliated groups—have terrorized Haitian neighborhoods. That includes 80% of the capital city Port-au-Prince. In April alone, the kill rate rose to 600, while it totaled 846 in the previous three months. But at the end of April a vigilante movement began to strike back—in the most gruesome ways.

It began when police detained 13 suspected gang members at a traffic stop in Port-au-Prince. “We took them from the police and finished them,” recalled Israel Bien-Aimé, a local resident. By finishing them, Bien-Aimé said he meant that they stoned the suspects and set them on fire.

The Bwa Kale movement

In the next two months, vigilantes wreaked revenge by killing at least 164 people. They have barricaded their neighborhoods with used tires, old cars and barbed wire to control access.

For instance, consider Turgeau, a community of doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Guards check people’s ID, bags, and tattoos before letting them pass. Their barricades work both ways, because Turgeau lies under siege by a gang called “5 Seconds”. 5 Seconds earned their name from the time it takes them to kill their victims.

5 Seconds killed up to a dozen people in a pre-dawn attack on Turgeau which incited the vigilante retaliation. “They burned down motorcycles. They burned down houses. And burned people. They raped. They looted,” said Kenson Dimanche, a barricade volunteer.

Some vigilantes carry machetes and do not hesitate to cut off body parts or burn suspects. Only a few blocks from Turgeau, a man recently showed off a decapitated head. In reaction a crowd yelled, “Bwa kale! Bwa kale!”—the name of the vigilante movement. It means “peeled wood”, signifying violence.

As the number of their victims has risen, the kill rate by gangs has decreased. And police—who number one per 1,200 Haitians—have shown little power to stop either side. The unelected and overwhelmed PM Ariel Henry has called for an international force to quell the violence.

But no one has responded. So we have no other recourse than to call on God. Because only He “makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth” (Ps. 46:9). And Haiti is one of those ends of the earth where the rest of the world fears to tread.

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