Haiti: UN peacekeeping mission says it has not been able to identify its attackers

Armed gangs in the dangerous suburban district of Cité Soleil, near Haiti’s capital, have made it difficult to identify the participants in recent fatal attacks on United Nations peacekeeping troops, the UN force in the country (MINUSTAH) said today.

MINUSTAH security forces were conducting a reconnaissance mission along National Highway 1 on Monday, with a view to reducing kidnapping cases and improving their own protection from direct attacks, when gang members fired on them, killing two and wounding a third.

After other peacekeepers returned fire, they could confirm the deaths of several of the attackers but could not obtain their bodies.

“Experience has shown that gang members’ corpses are often recovered by other gang members during confrontations,” the mission said.

MINUSTAH learned that following the violent attack, three people suffering from gunshot wounds were admitted to local hospitals. “Nonetheless, it has not been possible to find out the time or the place where they were wounded, or by whom,” it said.