A gang leader in Haiti is injured in a shootout with Haitian and Kenyan police

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) — A leader of one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs was injured in a shootout with Haitian and Kenyan police in their first major incursion into gang-controlled territory since a U.N.-backed mission began earlier this year, police said.

The second-in-command of the Kraze Baryè gang, known simply as “Deshommes,” was shot in Torcelle, a community the gang controls in the southeast region of the capital Port-au-Prince, Haiti National Police said in a statement Tuesday. Some 20 other gang members were killed during the police operations, which occurred on Saturday and Monday, officials said, adding that they confiscated firearms, munitions, phones and “sensitive materials and equipment.” Nobody was detained in the operations, and police didn’t say how they know that Deshommes was injured.

Police said the incursions would continue until the gang and its top leader, Vitel’Homme Innocent, could be neutralized. In a statement, the Kenyans who are leading the mission called on Innocent to “stop committing atrocities against innocent Haitians.” “(The mission) is sending a strong warning to key gang leaders to stop the barbarous acts of rapes, extortion, kidnapping, blackmail and killings,” they said. Innocent has been sanctioned by the U.S., the European Union and the U.N. Security Council, with the U.S. offering a $2 million reward for information leading to his capture. He has been indicted in the U.S. for the armed kidnapping of 16 Christian missionaries in 2021 and the slaying of missionary Marie Franklin and kidnapping of her husband in 2022. In a recent video, Innocent stands near an armored vehicle set on fire that police said they were forced to abandon due to engine failure during one of their operations.