Sawt Falasteen - Fragile calm in Haiti capital after latest violence

Lionel Lazarre of the Haitian police union said police repelled the attacks and that several "bandits" were killed. No police were among the victims, he said.

Lazarre called on the authorities to reinforce the police in the face of the escalating violence.

Burned-out vehicles were visible outside the Interior Ministry and in nearby streets, an AFP reporter said.

Humanitarian conditions continued to deteriorate in the long-troubled Caribbean nation, and aid groups and NGOs have warned of a shortage of food and medical supplies after armed groups unleashed widespread chaos last week.

A fragile calm settled over Port-au-Prince on Saturday, as residents continued to flee the city center, where cars set alight the previous night were still smoldering.

According to an AFP journalist on the scene, gunshots rang out throughout the capital late Friday, especially in the southwestern districts of Turgeau, Pacot, Lalue and Canape-Vert.

Fearful residents scrambled to take shelter, with witnesses telling AFP they had seen clashes "between police officers and bandits" as gangs apparently tried to commandeer police stations in the city center.

- Overrun by gangs -

Criminal groups, which already control much of Port-au-Prince as well as roads leading to the rest of the country, have attacked key infrastructure in recent days, including two prisons, allowing the majority of their 3,800 inmates to escape.

The gangs, along with some ordinary Haitians, are seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was due to leave office in February but instead agreed to a power-sharing deal with the opposition until new elections are held.

The United States has asked Henry to enact urgent political reform to prevent further escalation. But he was in Kenya when the violence broke out and is now reportedly stranded in the US territory of Puerto Rico.

After months of delays, the UN Security Council finally gave its green light in October for a multinational policing mission led by Kenya, but that deployment has been stalled by Kenyan courts.

On Thursday, the Haitian government issued a month-long state of emergency for the western region, which includes the capital, and decreed a nighttime curfew until Monday, though it was difficult to see how the already overstretched police could enforce it.

- 'A simple cigarette salesman' -

Port-au-Prince resident Fabiola Sanon told AFP that her 32-year-old husband James was killed in the unrest. He used to wake up early to earn money for their son's breakfast before taking him to school, she said.

"James has never been in conflict with anyone," Sanon said. "He's a simple cigarette salesman."

Lazarre, the police union spokesman, warned that the police were at the end of their rope and needed urgent help.

"The high command must provide means and equipment to agents so that they can consolidate police buildings and other important infrastructure," Lazarre told AFP on Saturday.

Haiti's airport remained closed Friday, while the main port -- a key source for food imports -- cited instances of looting since it suspended services on Thursday, despite efforts to set up a security perimeter.

"If we cannot access those containers (full of food), Haiti will go hungry soon," the NGO Mercy Corps warned in a statement.

CARICOM, an alliance of Caribbean nations, has summoned envoys from the United States, France, Canada and the United Nations to a meeting Monday in Jamaica to discuss the outbreak of violence.

Guyana's President Irfaan Ali said the meeting would take up "critical issues for the stabilization of security and the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance."

The UN warned Friday that thousands of people, especially pregnant women and survivors of sexual violence, are in danger of losing vital health care as the crisis drags on.

In addition, hundreds of thousands of students could see their records destroyed, as schools and ministry of education offices were vandalized, according to officials.

K.Hassan--SF-PST