An armed group fired on a police station in northwestern Haiti on Saturday, prompting officers to flee while prisoners escaped and more than 100 people started a flurry of looting, officials said. No one was reported killed in the clash in Gonaives, the country's third-largest city, which left the station empty after looters broke into the building and carried away furniture and other items, police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou said. The attack happened several hours after a suspected gang member was arrested for attacking and looting humanitarian aid trucks, said Capt. Mamie Ward, spokeswoman for the 5,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti. Shipments of food for victims of recent floods that wiped out much of Gonaives are commonly attacked by young men armed with guns and stones.
 Ward said peacekeepers helped guard the police station Friday night and Saturday morning after police received threats of attack. The troops returned to their base early Saturday, and soon after the attack began. Police called the troops for help when the shooting began, but by the time they returned the police had fled and more than 100 people were looting, Ward said. All those jailed at the station escaped during the melee, said Daniel Moskaluk, spokesman for the U.N. civil police. He did not know how many they were, but he said one prisoner was believed to be associated with the attackers. The Haitian broadcaster Radio Vision 2000 reported that the attackers were from the Artibonite Resistance Front, once a street gang known as the Cannibal Army that helped lead a February rebellion by attacking the Gonaives police station and killing officers. The rebellion led up to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, and under the subsequent interim government most rebels have continued to carry arms. Rebel leaders have since formed a political party, the Front for National Reconstruction. Some members recently distributed food to victims of Tropical Storm Jeanne, which unleashed floods and mudslides in September that killed some 1,900 and left 900 more missing and presumed dead, most in Gonaives. About 5,000 U.N. peacekeepers are currently in Haiti to provide stability. They include about 500 Argentine soldiers based in Gonaives. |