This footage was filmed and produced 6 May 2022.

Thousands of people who have fled their homes since the outbreak of clashes between the 400 Mawozo and Chen Mechan gangs, demonstrated this Friday, May 6, 2022 to demand peace in the Cul-de-Sac Plain and its surroundings.

For about two weeks, several families have been sleeping under the stars in Clercine Square, while others have taken refuge in the homes of relatives. Faced with this situation, the inhabitants of the neighborhoods of Shada, Butte Boyer, Croix-des-Missions among others have trodden the tarmac to demand a reaction from the authorities concerned so that they can return home.

According to the United Nations, the gang war in the Cul-de-Sac Plain has already left 75 people dead, including women and children, 68 wounded and 9,000 displaced. The UN is calling on the authorities to take steps to put the bandits out of business.

Script and sond bite translation:

[0:32-0:49]: Sounbite 1: We ask the police to give us security to live, because we don't want to run away again. This time we cannot run because of the gangs, we ask for our freedom, Toussaint Louverture and Dessaline did not fight for that. We ask President Vladimir Putin to help us.

[1:20-1:46]: Sounbite 2: We are on the streets today, because they want to rot our commune (the plain of the cul de sac), we are here to say that the plain of the cul de sac cannot gater like the other communes. We are also here to say no to insecurity, no to armed gangs, we want education, and it has been two weeks since the schoolchildren are deprived of their schools. This morning, the notables and the population of the cul de sac plain took to the streets to demand that the leaders take their responsibilities.

[2:07- 2:39]: Sounbite 3: We don't need armed gangs, we want professional schools and we want a dignified youth, but the people who are in charge of the country are only arming young people to fight each other, we are in the streets to say no to corruption, to tell people not to leave because of the pressure of the gang war, to stay at home because the plain of the cul de sac wants to breathe and wants to live.

[2:40-2:56]: Vehicles set on fire by armed gangs during the war between two rival gangs.

[2:57-3:02]: An inhabitant who left his house because of the war turns around to take some things.

[3:03-3:08]: A view into the yard of a house that has two burned vehicles.

[3:09 - 3:15]: The façade of the house of the base of the armed group called 400 mawozo, one of the armed groups that was in the war.