Gangs kill former Haitian senator Yvon Buissereth amid violence

Gangs killed a former Haitian senator who ran a government housing program in an affluent neighborhood of Port-au-Prince on Saturday, the prime minister said on Sunday, amid a spike in violence by criminal groups in the capital of the Caribbean nation.

Yvon Buissereth was shot dead as police battled gangs in the Laboule neighborhood, following an outbreak of violence in recent weeks in Port-au-Prince and a turf war in the city of Cité Soleil which left 148 dead, injured or missing.

« His killers, along with all other bereaved criminals across the country, will be fully prosecuted and held to account for their heinous acts in court, » Prime Minister Ariel Henry wrote on Twitter.

Buissereth served as a senator from 2006 and was appointed in 2017 to head the Public Enterprise for the Promotion of Social Housing, known as EPPLS.

The agency focuses on low-income housing and has partnered over the years with foreign institutions such as the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development.

Haitian gangs carried out intense gun battles in late July in Port-au-Prince, shutting down major avenues and a municipal market downtown.

Early last month, shootouts between rival Haitian gangs near Port-au-Prince left thousands of people in the small coastal town of Cité Soleil trapped without access to water, food or medical care.