Haitian police officers have joined, on more than one occasion, popular protests against the insecurity that the country has been experiencing for several years. | Photo: Twitter @de_syndicat

Port-au-Prince, June 26 (RHC)-- A provisional balance prepared by the Haitian National Police Union (SPNH-17) confirmed Thursday the accelerated increase in acts of banditry and insecurity and that nearly thirty policemen have died in the Caribbean country due to violence during the first six months of 2022.

Some 28 policemen were killed, a score more were shot and wounded during the period from January 1 to June 19, when four people, including Frantz Saint-Paul, an agent of the Brigade Against Drug Trafficking (BLTS ) was wounded in an armed attack in Croix-des-Bouquets, according to a report communicated by the coordinator of the Haitian National Police Union (SPNH-17), the divisional inspector, Jean Elder Lundy.

Jean Elder Lundy called, in this regard, on the Police to lay down their arms if the authorities do not want to assume their responsibilities in the face of the upsurge of acts of insecurity.

"We cannot accept that police officers continue to be victims of this scourge. The police have the choice between laying down their arms or continuing to confront the bandits", insisted the SPNH-17 coordinator, who was not indignant at what he called "the alarming proportions that insecurity is taking on Haitian territory".

On June 12, 2022 during the commemoration of 27 years of existence of the Haitian National Police (HNP), the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) called the attention of the population to the recurrent murders of police officers, the general working conditions of HNP officers and the inaccessibility of medical care for gendarmes.

The organization denounced that the conditions under which HNP agents are called to work are unacceptable: insufficient intervention equipment, premises in poor condition, lack of vehicles on the one hand, ineffective insurance coverage of necessary medical care on the other. 

In fact, the number of deaths since June last year amounts to 51, according to the RNDH count, which offers an average of 4 per month; in view of which they call for the provision of sufficient and adequate means for police officers to perform their duties such as weapons, ammunition, bulletproof vests, motorcycles, service vehicles, among others.