PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI (CMC) – Haiti has denied issuing a state of security emergency even as a human rights group reported that rival gang warfare has led to many deaths.

In a brief statement, the Communication Office of the prime minister said it was informing the general population and the press that the government “has not decreed a state of security emergency, contrary to rumours and the false order text, circulating on social networks”.

It gave no further details, but former legislator Carl Murat Cantave said people in Haiti are “fed up” and “are only hungry for security”.

“Consensus today is becoming an empty, outdated, inappropriate, illusory, operational word. It is only a simple artifice for one and the other. Ladies and gentlemen, the people are fed up, they are only hungry for security. Everything else is just nonsense,” the former senator said.

Haiti has been plagued with criminal activities, including kidnappings, and earlier this week, the abductors released at least three people.

Those released include businessman Jean-Marc Antoine, who was kidnapped last Sunday, accompanied by his son. The conditions of his release were given.

Kidnappers have also released the chief executive officer of the ALMA funeral directors Alcero Marc Arthur after an unspecified ransom had been paid.

Meanwhile, the Citizen Protection Office (OPC), said that since April 24, 2022, the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets has been the scene of violent armed clashes between rival gangs for the control of territory, particularly the neighbourhoods of Bon Repos, Shadda, Damien, Santo, and Butte Boyer.

It said that the situation has worsened with another set of criminal gangs getting involved, adding that up to May 2, “it was difficult to have an exact toll of the victims of this war between rival gangs”.

But the human rights group said that the first information reported several dozen people were killed and wounded, many homes were burnt and hundreds of people were displaced.

The OPC said that because of these armed conflicts, traffic is interrupted, thus blocking communication between the departments of Ouest, Artibonite, Nord, Nord-Est, Northwest and Center.

It said that since June 1 last year, the same situation has been observed in the districts of Martissant where access from Port-au-Prince to the departments of South, South-East, Nippes and Grand’Anse has been cut for 11 months.

“Everything is happening under the eyes and the great silence of the authorities and institutions responsible for ensuring the safety of lives and property, despite the calls for help from the inhabitants of the conflict zones. The people are on their own,” the OPC said, adding “for more than eight days, not a message or action both from the government and from the Superior Council of the National Police ”.

The OPC said it wanted to remind the state that it is the government’s “responsibility to ensure the safety of the population, to protect lives and property” and urged the authorities to take “rapid and urgent measures to restore order and peace in the communes of Croix-des-Bouquets, Cité-Soleil and the neighbourhoods of Martissant to allow all the inhabitants to go about their activities freely and without any worry”.