Haiti's capital in the dark after residents storm hydroelectric plant
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince was in the dark on Wednesday after residents of a nearby town stormed a dam and brought it offline in protest at government inaction over gang violence.
Gangs have tightened their grip on Haiti, with a record 1.3 million people displaced in the past six months, according to U.N. estimates.
Local media reported that residents of the central town of Mirebalais, to the north of Port-au-Prince, marched on Tuesday afternoon into the hydroelectric plant which powers much of the region and brought it offline.
Videos and photos circulating on social media, which Reuters was unable to immediately verify, showed them entering the building. They also reportedly toppled an electric transmission tower.
Haiti's transitional government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The outburst came after authorities and gangs faced off in Mirebalais earlier in the day, local media reported, with gangs capturing a security vehicle and setting it on fire. Reuters was not immediately able to verify images of the incident.
This would be the second time residents forcibly shuttered the hydroelectric plant in recent months. In May, interim Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime promised swift action to ensure a similar incident would not happen again.
Haitians are growing increasingly frustrated with the government as the transition council fails to deliver on promises to stabilize the nation, which has been without a president since Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021.
A Kenya-led, U.N.-backed security mission to the nation has also failed to make headway in tackling the crisis.
World leaders have increasingly called for the mission to become a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission, while the U.S. and Colombia have floated deploying troops through the Organization of American States.
(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Kylie Madry; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Armed men on motorbikes kill 34 Niger soldiers, ministry says
NIAMEY (Reuters) -Several hundred armed men, many on motorbikes, attacked a Niger army base near the border with Mali, leaving at least 34 soldiers dead and 14 wounded, the Defence Ministry said. The attackers - described as "mercenaries" by the ministry - used eight vehicles and more than 200 motorbikes in the raid on the base in Bani-bangou on Thursday, according to the statement read out on state TV. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on the army base in a statement on its Telegram channel on Friday. Niger, like other countries in West Africa's Sahel region, is battling Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State. Troops carried out aerial and ground search operations to secure the area after the attack, the ministry said without going into more detail on the assault. (Reporting by Moussa Aksar, additional reporting by Yomna Ehab; Writing by Ayen Deng Bior; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Rod Nickel)
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Soccer-Fan gets three-year ban for racially abusing player on Instagram
(Reuters) -A fan who racially abused former Tamworth striker Chris Wreh after the fifth-tier club's FA Cup defeat to Tottenham Hotspur has been banned from attending matches for three years, the Football Association said on Friday. Harry Dunbar, of John Bunyan Close in Whiteley, admitted to sending a racist message to Wreh, who is Black, via Instagram after losing a bet on the match, which Tamworth lost 3-0 to Tottenham in the FA Cup third round on 12 January. Dunbar, 20, was sentenced at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on Wednesday. In addition to the banning order, Dunbar will serve a 12-month Community Order of 200 hours unpaid work and 10 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days. "We welcome the decision of Portsmouth Magistrates' Court to impose a three-year football banning order on Harry Dunbar," the FA said in a statement. "We hope that this ruling sends a clear message that incidents of discrimination – whether in person or online – will not be tolerated, and that strong action will be taken against perpetrators of this unacceptable behaviour." Wreh refused to play for the National League side following the incident. He wrote on X, two days after the match that though he had the support of manager Andy Peaks, he was "disappointed" the club had not made a public statement condemning the abuse he had suffered. (Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Haitian ex-mayor gets nine years in US prison for visa fraud tied to political violence
A poster used as an exhibit in court during former Haitian mayor Jean Morose Viliena's trial is seen in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on March 28, 2025. U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo BOSTON (Reuters) -A former Haitian mayor was sentenced on Friday to nine years in a U.S. prison after being convicted of illegally obtaining a green card allowing him to reside in the United States by concealing his role in a brutal campaign to kill and torture his political opponents. Jean Morose Viliena, 53, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Boston after a jury in March found him guilty of committing what prosecutors in court papers said was "the most egregious type of immigration fraud." They had urged Saylor to sentence him to 10 years in prison, saying a lengthy sentence would "provide justice to the survivors and families of the victims who continue to suffer the effects of the defendant's persecution and concealment." Prosecutors charged Viliena with visa fraud a day after a jury in a civil case in 2023 ordered the former mayor of the rural Haitian town of Les Irois to pay $15.5 million to three Haitians who accused him of persecuting them or their families. Viliena, who at the time of his indictment was working as a truck driver and living in Malden, Massachusetts, has maintained his innocence throughout the litigation. He is appealing the civil verdict and can appeal his conviction as well. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors said that in applying for a visa in 2008, Viliena affirmed on a form that he had not "ordered, carried out or materially assisted in extrajudicial and political killings and other acts of violence against the Haitian people." In fact, Viliena, after being elected to a four-year term as mayor of Les Irois in December 2006, personally committed or ordered the maiming, harm, humiliation or death of his adversaries, prosecutors alleged. They said the victims include the three Haitians who pursued the earlier lawsuit, David Boniface, Juders Yseme and Nissage Martyr. That case was filed in 2017 under the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows for U.S. lawsuits against foreign officials accused of extrajudicial killings or torture when avenues for redress in their home countries are exhausted. Prosecutors said Viliena in 2007 led a group of armed men to Boniface's home who then beat and fatally shot his brother, and later mobilized a group in 2008 that beat and shot Martyr and Yseme at a community radio station. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
