Erdogan says YPG ‘will be buried’ in Syria if it doesn’t lay down arms
Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia must disband and called on the US to stop supporting it. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that Kurdish fighters in Syria will either lay down their weapons or “be buried”, amid hostilities between Turkiye-backed Syrian rebels and other armed groups since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. Following al-Assad’s ouster on December 8, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia must disband, asserting that the group has no place in Syria’s future. The change in Syria’s leadership has left the country’s main Kurdish factions on the back foot. “The separatist murderers will either bid farewell to their weapons, or they will be buried in Syrian lands along with their weapons,” Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament on Wednesday. “We will eradicate the terrorist organisation that is trying to weave a wall of blood between us and our Kurdish siblings,” he added. Turkiye views the YPG militia – the main component of the United States-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militia, which has waged a rebellion against the Turkish state since 1984. Advertisement The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkiye, the US and the European Union. Ankara has repeatedly called on its NATO ally Washington and others to stop supporting the YPG. Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said this is not a surprising statement by Erdogan “as it is the official rhetoric of the Turkish government”. Since the YPG is considered “the Syrian branch of the PKK, Ankara believes that they should either lay down arms, or they should fight and they will be defeated,” Koseoglu said. Earlier, Turkiye’s defence ministry said the armed forces had killed 21 YPG-PKK fighters in northern Syria and Iraq. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi acknowledged last week the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped battle ISIL (also known as ISIS) fighters and would return home if a total ceasefire was agreed with Turkiye, a core demand from Ankara. He denied any organisational ties with the PKK. Erdogan also said Turkiye would soon open its consulate in Aleppo, adding that Ankara expected an increase in traffic at its borders in the summer of next year as some of the millions of Syrian migrants it hosts begin to return to their homes. Adblock test (Why?)
Taiwan struggles to reconcile climate ambitions and chip manufacturing
Hsinchu, Taiwan – A crane bird flies across a silent rice paddy, the water slowly trickling in the background. It is a tranquil and stereotypical image of an East-Asian countryside. Little seems to suggest I am just a few kilometres removed from one of the hearts of the global economy. This is Hsinchu, a small city close to Taipei in Taiwan. It is what you could literally call the Silicon Valley of the world. Just a few kilometres from the tranquil rice paddies, gargantuan buildings rise from the ground, air conditioning humming permanently over the bustle of traffic. These are the factories that build the silicon chips or semiconductors that make our smartphones, computers and even artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT work. Yet these two worlds, tranquil nature and high-tech manufacturing, are increasingly clashing on the island. Taiwan is the world leader in the production of computer chips. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) is the largest chip manufacturer in Taiwan. By the third quarter of 2024, it had conquered 64 percent of the global semiconductor market, according to research firm Counterpoint. Advertisement The second-biggest player, South Korea’s Samsung Foundry, represented only a distant 12 percent. Chip manufacturing makes up an outsized part of Taiwan’s economy and contributes 25 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the island. In 2020, the market value of TSMC was equal to the size of half of Taiwan’s economy, as per a study at the time. Few countries seem to be able to outdo the Taiwanese at manufacturing chips. However, this semiconductor success is also raising sustainability issues. Chip manufacturing consumes large amounts of water and energy, and emits emissions through chemicals. TSMC alone consumes about 8 percent of the island’s electricity, according to a recent report by S&P Global Ratings. “After the petrochemical industry, the electronics industry is the biggest emitter of Taiwan,” Chia-Wei Chao, the research director at the nonprofit Taiwan Climate Action Network and adjunct assistant professor at the National Taiwan University, told Al Jazeera. “Semiconductors are also a rapidly growing industry, which is worrying, to say the least.” This is even bringing them into conflict with the farmers that Taiwan’s chip factories are located near. In 2021, during a drought, the Taiwanese government halted irrigation of farms, so the huge chip factories could use the saved water. Today, anxiety is growing over how solar farms, which are needed to power chip manufacturing, might take up farmland. “There seems to be a lack of systemic analysis on the environmental effects on semiconductor production,” Josh Lepawsky, a professor of geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, told Al Jazeera. Advertisement “That’s a grave mistake.” In Taiwan’s Hsinchu countryside, tranquil nature and high-tech manufacturing are an example of the increasing clash on the island [Tom Cassauwers/Al Jazeera] ‘Crazy’ AI While the water use of chip factories has garnered much international attention in the past few years, on the island itself, it is considered old news. Semiconductor manufacturers are already recycling most of the water they use, and the government has invested in more water infrastructure since the drought of the past years. The Taiwanese today are worrying about the industry’s energy use. Artificial intelligence achieved large breakthroughs in the past years, driven by the large language models of US companies like OpenAI and tools such as ChatGPT. This revolution was powered by chips that were mostly manufactured in Taiwan. The AI hype, in turn, is causing Taiwan’s huge chip factories to go into overdrive. “The AI market is becoming more crazy than ever,” Lena Chang, a campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, told Al Jazeera. “Because of it, the energy use of the semiconductor industry is becoming a major problem for Taiwan, because of increased emissions and even possible shortages.” In all the craziness, the climate might have been forgotten. “The main goal is now to develop AI and the related supply chains,” Chang said. “Energy is not a big concern. The government should be more active in developing sustainable energy.” Slow renewables One key issue here is the Taiwanese energy market. Taiwan is currently phasing out its nuclear reactors. Construction of solar and wind energy, however, has been lagging. Advertisement “Taiwan still heavily relies on fossil fuels,” Chang said. “More than 80 percent of our energy supply is from gas and coal.” Just 11 percent of Taiwan’s energy supply between September 2023 and August 2024 came from wind, solar and hydropower, according to the Energy Administration. A declining nuclear share contributed another 5.6 percent. The Taiwanese government in 2016 set a target of 20 percent renewables by 2025, which it will almost certainly miss. Offshore wind, for example, is lagging behind government targets. In 2018, Taiwan awarded 5.7 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind to be installed by 2025. By 2024, the government had downgraded its targets, and hoped between 2.56GW and 3.04GW would be ready that year. “Offshore wind went quite well until 2022. But then, for the following auction rounds, Taiwan tried to get both cheap energy and high localisation of the supply chain,” Raoul Kubitschek, the managing director of the renewable energy consultant NIRAS Taiwan, told Al Jazeera. Wind energy is particularly running into Taiwan’s localisation rules. Taiwan’s government is demanding that very high percentages of its wind turbines and other components be produced locally. This local production, however, is not picking up fast enough. “You cannot build a new supply chain this fast,” Kubitschek said. “Taiwan only constructed its first commercial-sized offshore wind farm in 2017. It takes time to create a domestic wind energy industry.” Solar energy is also running into barriers. Rooftop solar has been largely saturated on the island. Larger-scale solar farms, in turn, are controversial because of land disputes. Groups like farmers are afraid they will encroach on farmland, leading to protests and lawsuits. Advertisement Chia-wei Chao is hoping to turn this around. He leads some pilot projects where farmers themselves place solar panels on their land. “We shouldn’t force farmers to
Armed men open fire on journalists during reopening of Haiti hospital
Haitian authorities have struggled to address rise of powerful armed gangs, and accountability for violence is rare. Armed men have opened fire on a group of journalists in Haiti who had gathered to cover the reopening of the capital’s largest public hospital. While authorities have not offered details on casualties from the attack on Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported that two journalists and a police officer were killed, citing a journalist who witnessed the attack and asked not to be named. “We express our sympathy to all the victims’ families, in particular, to the PNH [Haiti’s national police] and all the journalists’ associations,” Haiti’s transitional presidential council stated in a social media post. “We guarantee them that this act will not remain without consequences.” The attack is the latest to roil Haiti, where continued political and economic instability have helped fuel the rise of violent armed gangs that have grown more powerful since the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Law enforcement authorities on the island nation have struggled to counter the criminal groups, which have exerted control over an estimated 80 percent of the capital, Port-Au-Prince, where widespread violence has hammered civilians and disrupted vital services. Advertisement One institution forced to close in March was the General Hospital, the country’s largest public hospital. Journalists had gathered on Tuesday morning to cover the facility’s reopening when gunmen opened fire at about 11am (16:00 GMT), Reuters reported. Government officials had convened to reopen the hospital in downtown Port-Au-Prince in July, but that event was also targeted by gunfire, which forced former Prime Minister Garry Conille to flee the scene. An unverified video posted online on Tuesday appears to show three journalists lying wounded on the floor of the building. A recent report by the United Nations stated that only 24 percent of health facilities in the Port-Au-Prince area are operational. Johnson “Izo” Andre, a powerful gang leader in a coalition known as Viv Ansanm, posted a video to social media on Tuesday taking credit for the attack. Adblock test (Why?)
US government agency targeting foreign disinformation shuts down
State Department unit established in 2016 closes after US Congress fails to extend funding amid Republican accusations. A leading United States government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department has said, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism. The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China. “The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps,” it said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC’s staff and its ongoing projects following the shutdown. The GEC had an annual budget of $61m and a staff of about 120. Its closing leaves the State Department without a dedicated office for tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in eight years. A measure to extend funding for the centre was stripped out of the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week. Advertisement The GEC has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and surveilling Americans. It also came under fire from Elon Musk, who accused the GEC in 2023 of being the “worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation” and called the agency a “threat to our democracy.” The GEC’s leaders have pushed back on those views, calling their work crucial to combating foreign propaganda campaigns. Musk had loudly objected to the original budget bill that would have kept GEC funding, though without singling out the centre. The billionaire is an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the new so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reducing government spending, in Trump’s upcoming administration. In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighbouring Ukraine. The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation. In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a “sharp contraction” in freedom of speech around the world. Adblock test (Why?)
FAA lifts groundstop of American Airlines flights after technical issue
Brief halt to flights in US had threatened the travel plans of millions of people during busy holiday period. A groundstop of all American Airlines flights in the United States has been lifted, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said, after an unspecified “technical issue” briefly halted flights across the country. Just before 7am Eastern time (12:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the FAA ordered all American Airlines flights grounded in the US at the airline’s request. “American Airlines reported a technical issue this morning and requested a nationwide ground stop. The ground stop has now been lifted,” Bridgett Frey, assistant administrator for communications at the FAA, said in a statement. The groundstop, early on Christmas Eve, had threatened the travel plans of millions of people across the US during the busy holiday period. American Airlines had said that “a technical issue” was affecting its flights. “We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights. Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we’ll have you safely on your way to your destination,” the company said in a post on X. We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights. Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we’ll have you safely on your way to your destination. — americanair (@AmericanAir) December 24, 2024 Advertisement American operates thousands of flights per day to more than 350 destinations in more than 60 countries. The grounding came months after airlines were hit by a global tech outage tied to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and a software issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Two years ago, Southwest Airlines experienced a meltdown with its systems during the holidays that led to 16,900 flight cancellations and stranded 2 million passengers. It was eventually fined $140m in the largest-ever civil penalty for a travel disruption. This year, the Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays and through January 2. Social media lit up on Tuesday morning with travellers complaining about how the American Airlines delay might impact their holidays or ruin their visit with family. “Heck of [a] way to start Christmas. Hey, @AmericanAir just tell us whether we should go home or not. Please don’t make us wait in the airport for hours,” one user wrote on X. Adblock test (Why?)
ICC Champions Trophy: India to play matches in Dubai, not Pakistan
The ICC revised schedule for the tournament has India playing group matches, semifinal 1 and final, if required, in UAE. The Champions Trophy 2025 will now be held in Pakistan and Dubai, after hosts Pakistan selected the UAE as a neutral venue for their rivals India, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said. The venue change followed weeks of wrangling after India refused to visit Pakistan for their matches. Tournament holders Pakistan will now have to travel to Dubai to play India in a match on 23 February, and again, if the sides were to meet, in the final on March 9. “Lahore will also host the final on 9 March, unless India qualify, in which case it will be played in Dubai. Both the semi-finals and the final will have reserve days,” the ICC said in a statement on Tuesday. “The three group matches involving India, as well as the first semi-final, will be played in Dubai.” The eight-team competition kicks off on February 19 in Karachi, featuring a total of 15 matches across Pakistan and Dubai. Tournament matches will be held in Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi. Each venue in the country is set to host three group-stage games, with Lahore also staging the second semifinal. Advertisement Pakistan face New Zealand in the Group A opener in Karachi on February 19, while India meet Bangladesh in Dubai a day later. Due to strained political ties, India have not toured Pakistan since 2008, and the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI), citing government advice, has refused to send its team for the Champions Trophy. The ICC said last week that matches between India and Pakistan in tournaments from 2024 to 2027 organised in either nation would be played at neutral venues. The Champions Trophy will be the first ICC event hosted by Pakistan since it shared the 1996 World Cup with India and Sri Lanka. India fans will need to travel to Dubai to watch their team play in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy [Satish Kumar/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)
Syria says ex-rebel groups agree to integrate under Defence Ministry
De facto Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa says factions agreed to disband following a meeting with the heads of the groups. Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has reached an agreement with rebel factions to come together as one force under the Defence Ministry, according to the new Syrian general administration. A meeting between al-Sharaa and the heads of the groups “ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence”, said a statement by the new administration on Tuesday. However, the Kurdish-led and United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group in northeastern Syria is not part of the deal just announced. Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir had said last week that the ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Bashar al-Assad’s army. “Since the fall of the Assad regime, this is perhaps the most important development that has happened in Syria,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Damascus. He explained that immediately after the fall of al-Assad’s regime, opposition fighters from across the country streamed into Damascus, with some of them claiming different territories of the capital. Advertisement “The main fear was how these groups that had been fighting against the regime during the course of 13 years of the civil war – groups that are heavily armed – how they are going to merge and unite,” Serdar said. “After talks and talks, several sessions and meetings … now Ahmed al-Sharaa, the de facto leader of Syria who is also the leader of HTS – the most dominant military and political power in Syria – is saying that all the armed groups have decided to merge under the Ministry of Defence; that is quite a remarkable development.” ‘Lift sanctions’ Following a sweeping offensive over two weeks ago that catapulted Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into power in Damascus, the country’s new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the rebellion that toppled al-Assad, as defence minister in the interim government. Al-Sharaa had previously promised that all weapons in the country, including those held by Kurdish-led forces, would come under state control. He has sought to reassure Western officials visiting him that HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, will neither seek revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority. He said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts. Syrian opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on December 8, forcing al-Assad to flee after more than 13 years of war, ending his family’s decades-long rule. Forces under the command of al-Sharaa have installed a three-month caretaker government. Advertisement Qatar on Tuesday called for the swift removal of sanctions on Syria, a day after a high-level Qatari delegation visited Damascus, marking a turning point in relations. The Qatari embassy in the Syrian capital reopened on Sunday, ending a 13-year diplomatic rift between the two nations. “Qatar’s position is clear,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari stated. “It’s necessary to lift the sanctions quickly, given that what led to these sanctions is no longer there and that what led to these sanctions were the crimes of the former regime.” Adblock test (Why?)
Guatemala finds children taken by Jewish sect after abuse investigation
The Jewish sect, Lev Tahor, has accused Guatemala authorities of religious persecution. Guatemalan authorities have recovered several children taken by members of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect who had broken into a care centre where they were being held. Officials said that members of the Lev Tahor sect had entered the shelter on Sunday in an effort to take back 160 minors who had been taken from the sect’s compound on Friday in a police raid. Authorities accuse the sect of child sexual abuse. Some of the children were found on Sunday, while others were recovered early on Monday, according to the AFP news agency. The farm compound in Oratoria, southwest of Guatemala City, was raided on Friday by authorities to rescue children and adolescents who “were allegedly being abused by a member of the Lev Tahor sect”, said Minister of the Interior Francisco Jimenez. Nancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala’s Prosecutor’s Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a news conference : “Based on the statements of the complainants, the evidence obtained, and the medical examinations, it was possible to establish that there are forms of human trafficking against these minors, such as forced marriage, abuse and related crimes.” Advertisement About 100 of the children’s relatives who belong to the sect gathered on Sunday outside a care centre in Guatemala City, where the children were being held, to demand their return. Sect members then “broke into” the centre at about 4:30pm local time (22:30 GMT), “forcing open the gate and abducting the children and adolescents sheltered there”, a statement from the Attorney General’s Office said. “We want them to let the children out of here,” Uriel Goldman, a representative of the families, told the AFP outside the centre before the attempted recapture of the minors. Those outside the shelter tried to prevent the authorities from bringing back the minors, leading to some scuffles with police, according to an AFP photographer at the scene. With police help, the centre “managed to locate and protect everyone again”, the Attorney General’s Office said, although the Secretariat of Social Welfare of the Presidency later clarified that some had “evaded” authorities and a search alert has been activated. Lev Tahor has also accused local authorities of religious persecution. “The authorities… tell lies with false accusations,” Goldman said. The Lev Tahor community, founded in 1988 in Israel, practise an austere form of Judaism with interpretation of Jewish law that includes long prayer sessions and arranged marriages. The community settled in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. In 2022, a Mexican police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on the Guatemalan border rescued a group of children and adolescents from a Lev Tahor camp, whose members were arrested on suspicions of participating in abuses against minors. Advertisement The Jewish Community of Guatemala in a statement said the sect was foreign to its organisation and expressed its support for Guatemalan authorities in carrying out the necessary investigations “to protect the lives and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups that may be at risk”. It called on the “government and diplomatic corps of countries from whose nationalities make up members of Lev Tahor, to join forces to protect those whose rights may be violated”. The minors are now under the protection of the government and investigations remain under way. Adblock test (Why?)
Canada records almost 50,000 deaths from fentanyl since 2016
The highly addictive opioid is behind an increasing number of deaths in Canada, according to the government. Fentanyl is increasingly behind opioid overdose deaths in Canada, according to new government data. The national health agency on Monday reported that nearly 50,000 people in the North American country died from opioid overdose deaths from January 2016 to June 2024. During that period, fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid sometimes prescribed for pain relief, accounted for 49,105 of the deaths. Meanwhile, the proportion of fentanyl deaths has increased, according to the data, accounting for 79 percent of opioid deaths so far this year. That is a 39 percent increase since 2016. The data was released just weeks before United States President-elect Donald Trump is set to enter the White House. Trump’s looming presidency has drawn increased attention to the opioid crisis in North America, with the president-elect threatening to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico if the neighbours did not do more to stem the flow of drugs and undocumented migrants crossing into the US. Advertisement Canada’s government last week announced a raft of new border measures aimed at allaying Trump’s concerns, even if the president-elect’s claims do not quite track with the data. US Customs and Border Protections reported that less than 20kg of fentanyl was seized at the US-Canada border in 2023. Still, Canadian authorities have warned of an increase in domestic production of fentanyl in the country, with law enforcement focusing more on chemical precursors used to make the substance. Canada’s foreign ministry has said the seizure of Canadian-made fentanyl in the US, Australia and other countries indicates that domestic production exceeds demand and Canada has become a net fentanyl exporter. The overall rate of opioid overdoses has declined compared with last year, according to Health Canada. Health Canada said an average of 21 people had died each day from apparent opioid overdoses so far this year – an 11 percent decline from 2023. Still, the agency warned that the numbers are preliminary and subject to change. “We must remain cautious in drawing conclusions on the trends for 2024,” it said in a statement. “The extent of opioid and stimulant-related harms remains very high.” Adblock test (Why?)
UN raises death toll for recent Cite Soleil massacre in Haiti’s capital
The UN now says 207 people were killed in a slum neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, earlier this month. The United Nations has raised the death toll of a recent mass killing in Haiti, saying its investigation found that 207 people were killed by a gang, including dozens of older people and Vodou religious leaders. In a report published on Monday, the UN office in Haiti detailed events that took place between December 6 and 11 in the Wharf Jeremie neighbourhood of Cite Soleil, a coastal slum in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The gang took people from their homes and a place of worship, interrogated them and then “executed” them with bullets and machetes before burning their bodies and throwing them into the sea, the report found. Earlier this month, human rights groups in Haiti had estimated that more than 100 people were killed in the event, but the new UN investigation concluded that a total of 134 men and 73 women were slaughtered. “We cannot pretend that nothing happened,” said María Isabel Salvador, the UN secretary-general’s special representative in Haiti. “I call on the Haitian justice system to thoroughly investigate these horrific crimes and arrest and punish the perpetrators, as well as those who support them,” she said in a statement. Advertisement The Haitian government acknowledged the killing of older people in a statement issued earlier this month, and promised to prosecute those responsible for this act of “unspeakable carnage”. The UN Security Council issued a statement on Monday condemning the latest gang killings and expressing their “deep concern” over the crisis in Haiti, highlighting food insecurity and gang recruitment of children. Insecurity and isolation The insecurity has deteriorated so far in Haiti that the UN recently ordered some of its personnel to leave the country or relocate from the capital to safer areas. The country is increasingly isolated after the Port-au-Prince international airport was closed due to commercial passenger planes being struck by gunfire. The UN is in discussions over what steps to take in Haiti after an international security mission led by 400 Kenyan police has struggled to restore law and order. One option being considered is a return to a full-scale peacekeeping operation, despite mixed results by previous deployments, including a “stabilisation” mission, MINUSTAH, which ran from 2004 until it departed in 2017. ‘King Micanor’ Human rights groups in Haiti said the Wharf Jeremie killings began after the son of Micanor Altes, a local gang leader, died from an illness. Witnesses told the groups that Altes, alias “King Micanor”, accused people in the neighbourhood of causing his son’s illness by casting an evil spell on him. In Monday’s report, the UN said that people were tracked down in their homes and in a place of worship by Altes’s gang, where they were first interrogated and then taken to a site where they would be killed. Advertisement The killings are the latest humanitarian tragedy in Haiti, where gang violence has intensified since the nation’s president, Jovenel Moise, was killed in a 2021 coup attempt. The Caribbean nation is currently governed by a transitional council that includes representatives from the business community, civil society and political parties, but its government has no control over many areas of the capital city, and gangs are constantly fighting over ports, highways and neighbourhoods. According to the UN, more than 5,358 people have been killed in Haiti’s gang wars this year and another 2,155 injured. More than 17,000 people have been killed or injured in gang-related violence in Haiti since the beginning of 2022. Adblock test (Why?)