‘The Ground Shook’: Drone attacks help the Haitian government to combat capital control of criminal gangs | Haiti

The earth under the apartment of Jimmy Antoine Frissonna and during a fraction of a second, he feared that another natural disaster struck, like the cataclysm of 2010 which put Port-au-Prince on his knees.

“The ground trembled as it did during an earthquake. You tremble as if everything could collapse,” said the 23 -year -old trainee mechanic, recalling how he and his panicked neighbors rushed into the street.

This time, however, the shock had not come to the bottom, but from above: it was the detonation of an armed drone of the genre used to chase members of Haitian gangs who diverted most of the country’s capital since the start of a criminal insurrection coordinated at the beginning of last year.

“People had told me about drones … but this one took me off guard … I felt like I exploded where I was standing,” Antoine said 6-hour attack last month near Sico, the working class district where he lives.

While the besieged government of Haiti is struggling to reconquer a sprawling seaside city now almost entirely controlled by gangs, armed drones have become a key element of their arsenal. Since the start of the drone campaign in March, at least 300 people have been killed by remote -controlled devices and nearly 400 injured, according to a local human rights group called RNDDH.

The videos of these attacks spread quickly on social networks, painting a terrifying portrait of the drone war which takes place in the streets of one of the largest cities in the Caribbean.

One of these videos, which the Guardian has identified as having taken place in an area managed of gangs called Fort National, shows four people – at least two armies – moving in an alley before being hit from above by an explosion. The blue and white smoke fills the backstreet while the men disperse.

Another clip, published on social networks by an American missionary, shows an attack on an evangelical theological seminar about 2 miles southwest of Fort National, not far from the home of Jimmy Antoine. At least one person can be seen sprinter to hide while the drone heads for its target on the second floor and explodes. “I have good memories of teaching in the very class he struck,” tweeted Luke Perkins, president of the Crossworld missionary group.

Trevor Ball, a former technician to eliminate explosive ammunition from the American army, said that drones used in Port-au-Prince seemed to be first-person drones (FPV).

The images of such an improvised weapon were shared on social networks in March, renowned following a police raid on a gang bastion in the region of Lower Delmas. The Guardian was able to identify this FPV drone model and found it on Chinese electronic commerce sites for around $ 200, which makes them relatively cheap and consumable.

Ball said that it was not possible to determine the exact ammunition used from images, but it was likely that drones had been equipped with explosives intended for commercial exploitation or black powder – a homemade mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur used in fireworks. “These tactics are used in other parts of the world, especially in the Ukrainian-Russian war. The use of first-person drones to deliver explosive devices has become extremely common there, and was also seen in other conflicts,” added Bell.

Another video that has surfaced earlier this year showed a drum shot targeted on a moving car within 500 meters (547 yards) of the enclosure which would belong to Johnson André, a notorious gang boss known by the nickname “Izo” whose gang is called 5 Segonn (“five seconds”). The car driven near the waterways that would have been used for drug and firearm traffic by gangs.

The origin of online drone videos remains clear, but many suspect that some of them are produced and published by a dark armed group and recruited by the government which has been enlisted to strengthen the counterattack against gangs. Air videos generally represent “action photos” or when the drone strikes a target, often published and set to energetic music.

Last month, the New York Times, quoting senior Haitian officials and the US government, reported that the controversial Blackwater founder Erik Prince had worked with the Haitian government “to carry out deadly operations against gangs that terrorize the nation and threaten to take control of its capital.”

The newspaper said that American entrepreneurs, including Prince, had been hired “to work on a secret working group to deploy drones intended to kill gang members”. Two experts said Prince had recently sent “a large cache of arms” to Haiti and sought to recruit Haitian American military veterans to send to Port-au-Prince as part of a mercenary force of 150 people in the coming months.

Earlier this month, Fritz Alphonse Jean, the chief of the transitional council who tried to govern Haiti since his Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, was overthrown at the start of the gang rebellion, confirmed that a private security company was engaged by the government. But he refused to name him or say how he was paid. Jean argued that it was impossible that the police were unquiced and sub-financed of Haiti to “face these challenges alone”.

Perhaps surprisingly, Haitian human rights activists supported the use of the drone war to target criminal groups that forced more than a million people to flee their homes and killed thousands. An international security force supported by the UN, led by Kenyan police, has so far not rejected the criminal lead.

“For us … The drones are fully proportioned to the weapons level that gangs have,” said Rosy Auguste Ducéna, a respected human rights defender for RNDDH in Port-au-Prince.

Ducéna said her group supported such strikes against gang bastions. “Why? Because? Because we consider the sophistication of weapons in the hands of the gangs, how these weapons are used to inflict the suffering of the rest of the population-the crimes we know: murders, theft, rape, gang rape, fire of the personal effects of people,” she said.

Ducéna thought that drones “instilled fear” in highly armed gang members and seemed to have such criminals on the back.

“We cannot reject the fact that these operations have an impact on them. The element of uncertainty is also very important. The gangs do not necessarily know when or where a strike will occur, and we believe that it is one of the reasons for the drop in the activity of the gangs that we are currently seeing,” she said, describing how the fear that has seized the streets of her city is gradually.

“Many banks have reopened, and many schools are again open. There is no longer the same tension as insecure … There is a glimmer of hope,” said Ducéna, although she expressed her concern that work drilling coordinating drones attacks was led by the Prime Minister’s office, Alix Son-Aimé, rather than security officials.

“We believe [this is] Extremely dangerous for democracy. A political authority should not lead a team leading this type of operation, “said Ducéna.

Activists and foreign human rights specialists question efficiency – not to mention legality – to use armed drones in a country which, despite all blood effusions, is not officially considered in a state of conflict.

“I don’t think it works. They didn’t kill a single gang leader after three, spending four months, and we don’t know how many civilians have been injured,” said an expert, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the problem. “It simply shows how desperate the government and the police are [are]. “”

“I think it’s a sign of despair … it shows how desperate people are to have a sign that … something can be done to stop [the gangs]. This is really what it is, “they added, worry that gang chiefs could adopt the same tactics, exacerbating an already disastrous situation.” And if they [the gangs] Are you starting to shoot drones? The climbing factor is also very worrying. »»

Earlier this month, there were signs that gangs were already trying to build theirs Arsenal of drones when three alleged “terrorists” were arrested in the neighboring Dominican Republic trying to buy the devices. In recent years, Mexican cartels and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro have started using armed drones to launch attacks on authorities or rivals.

On the ground in Port-au-Prince, many offer a more positive assessment of the air offensive.

Last month, Belony Jasse, an 18 -year -old high school student who said he had heard explosions of drones “all the time”, finally managed to return home that the gangs forced her to flee after improving security.

The noise of drone attacks terrified the teenager in love with algebra. “It makes you blow up. It’s frightening. You don’t expect noise. You could drop everything you hold. The sound is very strong. This breaks your heart, it takes time to recover. It’s heavy,” he said.

But Jassé has credited these attacks – associated with an intensification of police operations by the police and vigilance groups – with recent progress in his neighborhood. “I no longer hear a lot of shots. Last night, I barely heard no blow … This week, I heard no shot,” he said.

The situation remained critical, admitted Jasse. “But compared to what it was, I no longer scare.”