PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -A kamikaze drone strike has reportedly killed at least eight children and several adults in an attack on an alleged Haitian gang leader’s birthday party in the capital Port-au-Prince, where he was distributing gifts, local media reported on Tuesday.
Local media Haiti Libre reported the attack targeted Albert Steevenson, known as Djouma, in the capital’s Simon Pele neighborhood over the weekend, killing more than a dozen people including at least eight children.
Haiti’s government began deploying explosive-packed kamikaze drones in March this year with support from Vectus Global, a private security firm run by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, aiming to fight violent armed groups that have taken control of most of the capital and expanded to surrounding regions.
Neither Haiti’s police, presidential office nor Vectus Global immediately responded to requests for comment. Haiti’s prime minister’s office said an investigation was taking place.
An analysis by Insight Crime late June found that while the government drone attacks had temporarily shaken up the security landscape, legal concerns remained while reports of civilian casualties mounted amid opacity on the attacks from those in charge.
Details of the attack in the capital, where gang leaders exert tight control on communities and authorities rarely publicly comment on attacks, did not begin to emerge until early this week.
The U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti estimates at least 236 people were killed and 223 injured in drone operations between April and June of this year, of which six were not gang members.
News of the attack came the same day as diplomats met at the United Nations to discuss expanding a U.N.-backed security force mandated to help national police restore security.
The Kenyan-led force, supplied by volunteer contributions, deployed in June last year but has so far gathered just a fraction of the troops and funding it hoped for, and struggled to make headway in preventing the expansion of the armed groups.
“The transitional government was supposed to restore trust in the state,” said Haiti researcher Jake Johnston on social media. “It’s doing the exact opposite.”
(Reporting by Harold Isaac, Sarah Morland and Anna Hirtenstein; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
