Fresh wave of violence erupts in Haiti's capital over a soccer match

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A fresh wave of violence between rival gangs in one of the Haitian capital's poorest neighborhoods was sparked by gunfire that broke out over a referee's call during a soccer match, a pastor and newspaper said Friday.

The awarding of a penalty kick in Wednesday's championship match in the Cité Soleil community of Port-au-Prince touched off a shootout at the venue that killed the second-in-command of one gang and injured another gang leader, the pastor said.

“A lot of people were killed,” Pastor Enock Joseph told Magik 9 radio station on Friday. Joseph, whose church is located inside Cité Soleil, said he did not know exactly how many people have died so far.

Gunfire continued in the neighborhood on Friday, two days after the match, and Joseph said people were trapped in their homes by the violence.

A human rights organization that generally provides estimated death tolls following widespread attacks once it’s safe to enter an area did not immediately respond to a message for comment.

Among those killed on Wednesday was a high-ranking member of the Simon-Pelé gang, which operates on the outskirts of Cité-Soleil, the newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported. A leader of the Belekou gang was shot in the foot, and one of the leaders of the Nan Boston gang escaped unscathed, the newspaper said.

Belekou and Nan Boston operate in the center of Cité Soleil. Along with Simon-Pelé, they were members of the country’s most powerful gang federation: G9 Family and Allies, led by former elite police officer Jimmy Chérizier, best known as Barbecue.

This week's violence has dissolved a fragile truce among the three gangs, Joseph said.

The violence presents a new challenge to a Kenyan-led mission aimed at quelling gang violence in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Joseph, the pastor, accused the government of abandoning Cité Soleil and providing no services. “This is horrible, the way things are,” he told the radio station.

He also accused Haiti's National Police of stationing officers at the exit of the neighborhood and firing at young men.

A police spokesman did not return a message for comment.

It’s unclear if members of the U.N.-backed mission led by Kenya and recently joined by police and soldiers from Jamaica would try to quell the violence in Cité-Soleil. Most of the recent operations have centered in downtown Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.

More than 3,200 people across Haiti have been killed from January to May, according to the U.N. The ongoing violence also has left more than half a million people homeless in recent years.