Two men in Haiti were hacked to death by a mob who thought they were buying weapons for a gang, police said Saturday.
Police said the men were found with about $20,000 (about £16,000) and about $43,000 in Haitian cash in their car, along with two handguns and a box of ammunition. It was confirmed that the crowd had snatched the men from police custody.
Carrying around such large amounts of cash was considered suspicious, and residents believed it was used to purchase weapons for a gang.
The murder occurred Friday in a town near the regional city of Mille Valley. Police apparently fired warning shots into the air to try to stop the killing, but the mob killed him anyway. One of the victims was a police officer and the other a former security guard, according to identification documents.
The killings underscored how outnumbered Haiti’s police are and the anger of Haitians after months of murders, kidnappings and armed attacks by gangs in the country.
Last month, gangs targeted key infrastructure, including police stations in the capital Port-au-Prince, the main international airport, which remains closed, and Haiti’s two largest prisons, and released more than 4,000 prisoners.
On Thursday, U.N. human rights expert William O’Neill said the war-torn Caribbean nation is currently hiring 4,000 people to deal with “devastating” gang violence targeting key figures, hospitals, schools and banks. He said he needed 5,000 international police. and other important institutions.
According to O’Neill’s report, the number of deaths and injuries from gang violence increased significantly in 2023, with 4,451 people killed and 1,668 injured. The number continues to rise this year, with 1,554 people dead and 826 injured as of March 22.
The report states that as a result of the escalation in gang violence, so-called “self-defense brigades” are taking justice into their own hands, with “at least 528 lynching incidents reported in 2023 and a further 59 in 2024. A number of lynching incidents were reported.”
