Two journalists have been shot and burned to death in Haiti by a gang while reporting on the lack of security in the country's capital...
Two journalists have been shot and burned to death in Haiti by a gang while reporting on the lack of security in the country's capital.
Amady John Wesley, a reporter for Radio Écoute FM, died alongside Wilguens Louissaint when members of the Ti Makak gang attacked them in Petion-Ville, a suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince, on Thursday.
The pair had gone to the area along with a third reporter, who escaped, to report on a gang turf war engulfing the neighbourhood when the attack took place.
Journalists Amady John Wesley, (left) a reporter for Radio Écoute FM, died alongside Wilguens Louissaint (right) when members of the Ti Makak gang attacked them in suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince in Haiti on Thursday
The pair had gone to the area along with a third reporter, who escaped, to report on a gang turf war engulfing the neighbourhood when the attack took place (pictured, a member of the Haitian Armed Forces stands guard near the presidential palace on January 4, 2022)
Radio Écoute, which is based in Canada, told CNN that gang member had shot and then burned the journalists alive.
'We condemn in the strongest terms this criminal and barbaric act,' said Francky Attis, general director of Radio Ecoute FM.
His statement denounced the 'serious attack on the rights to life' and on 'journalists exercising their profession freely in this country.'
Haiti, a Caribbean nation which shares an island with the Dominican Republic, has been in turmoil since a devastating 2010 earthquake killed tens of thousands and destroyed much of its capital.
The country has been struggling ever since, and in July last year the situation took a rapid turn for the worse when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his official residence - with suspicion falling on his political enemies.
Amid the general lack of order, criminal gangs have flourished and taken control of some of the island's infrastructure.
What began as a turf war in Port-au-Prince's poorer neighbourhoods has now spread to wealthy areas of the capital and its outlying suburbs and villages.
Laboule 12, where Thursday's killings took place, has been at the centre of a bitter gang war as rival factions try to secure control of the road that runs through it.
It is one of the only routes into or out of the capital from the southern half of the country, other than a highway which is already controlled by another gang.
In July 2021 the situation in Haiti took a rapid turn for the worse when President Jovenel Moïse (pictured) was assassinated in his residence - with suspicion falling on his political enemies
Security forces inspect at the site after an attack at the residence of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 7
The President of Haiti Jovenel Moise was shot dead in his home in the Pelerin 5 neighbourhood in the hills above Port-au-Prince
Haiti recorded at least 950 kidnappings in 2021, according to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, based in Port-au-Prince.
Under-equipped and facing heavily armed criminal groups, Haiti's police have not organised any large-scale operations against the gangs since March 2021.
On March 12, four police officers were killed in an attempted raid in a Port-au-Prince neighbourhood, known to be used by one gang as a holding area for kidnap victims.
Their bodies and equipment were never recovered.
The gangs' impunity highlights the weaknesses of Haiti's criminal justice system, in which investigations are rarely successful.
The April 2000 assassination of Haitian journalist Jean Dominique, the island nation's most famous reporter at the time, remains unsolved.
In June 2021, journalist Diego Charles was killed, along with an opposition political activist and 13 other people. The perpetrators of the Port-au-Prince shooting have not been identified by law enforcement.
Photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur never returned from a March 2018 reporting trip to the poor neighbourhood of Martissant - now entirely controlled by gangs.
The police have yet to release the results of a DNA test they said they would conduct on a body found a few days after his disappearance.
Investigations into the murders of two other journalists, in June and October 2019, have also not been completed.
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