Two Haitian journalists killed while reporting in slum controlled by gangs

Tayson Latigue and Frantzsen Charles were among seven journalists who came under attack on Sunday

Two Haitian reporters have been shot dead and their bodies set on fire while reporting in a slum controlled by gangs in the capital, in the second such killing this year.

Tayson Latigue and Frantzsen Charles were among seven journalists who came under attack on Sunday in the Cité Soleil district of Port-au-Prince. They were investigating worsening violence in the area, including the recent killing of a 17-year-old girl, according to a statement from Haiti’s Association of Independent Journalists.

Dieudonné St-Cyr, a reporter with the association, told radio station Métropole Haiti that the journalists were ambushed by two warring gangs that he did not identify. He said the five other reporters fled unharmed, adding that the bodies of the two victims had not been recovered.

The organization condemned what it called a “villainous and odious act” and demanded that the government improve the country’s worsening insecurity amid a surge in killings and kidnappings. Gangs have grown more powerful since 7 July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.