Police in Haiti regain control of key telecom hub seized by gangs

Police in Haiti announced Tuesday that they regained control of a critical telecommunications hub that heavily armed gangs had seized last week, briefly disrupting air traffic and internet connections.

The takeover was a rare success for Haitian authorities and a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police that have struggled to push back powerful gangs seeking full control of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The police operation at the Téléco site in the once peaceful community of Kenscoff began before dawn on Monday and lasted about two hours, according to Michel-Ange Louis Jeune, spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police.

“This is a strong message that the new police chief sent,” he said, referring to André Jonas Vladimir Paraison, who was appointed to the post earlier this month.

Jeune did not take questions during the news conference and did not say how many people, if any, were killed during the operation.

He said police found numerous guns, including automatic weapons with scratched-out serial numbers, and more than 1,000 bullets.