and its surrounding areas and the government’s failure to hold them off. Since mid-February, Haiti has seen a resurgence of gang violence. Gangs, which control about 85 percent of Port-au-Prince, according to the United Nations, have stepped up attacks in several neighbourhoods previously beyond their control, spreading terror among the population. The violent groups have united behind a coalition known as Viv Ansanm and forced more than one million people from their homes, which has contributed to a freezing of the economy and has fuelled mass hunger. They are also accused of extortion, mass rapes and killings.

The transitional government, a rotating body of presidential council members appointed nearly a year ago, alongside a long undermanned and underfunded UN-backed security mission have done little to hold off the gangs’ advances so far. From early last Wednesday, the protesters erected barriers and disrupted traffic as they headed towards the offices of the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) and the prime minister before being dispersed by the police. They denounced the inaction of the authorities, who have failed to restore security almost a year to the day after the creation of the CPT, set up after the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

“Do you see what is happening?” protester Joseph Mackendy told the Reuters news agency at the demonstration. “Today, Haitian people will fight to be free already. We are free. Those men today cannot frighten me.” “We can’t stand this insecurity in the country any longer,” one protester, who declined to be named, told the AFP news agency. “It is unacceptable that we continue to lose territory. In reality, I believe that these territories are being handed over to bandits by the authorities, who are not rising to the occasion,” he added.

The protest came days after a mass jailbreak in the central town of Mirebalais. From last Sunday night to Monday, gangs attacked the police station and prison in Mirebalais, a town about 50km (30 miles) northeast from Port-au-Prince, freeing 529 inmates. This attack and another on the nearby town of Saut d’Eau forced 5,981 people to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration. (Al Jazeera/AFP)