Heavy shooting was reported Friday evening March 8 near the national palace of Haiti, in the capital Port-au-Prince, according to information from the EFE news agency.
The island, in the grip of chaos, entered a state of emergency last Sunday after armed gangs stormed several prisons, causing their inmates to escape by the thousands.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Kenya seeking a deal for an international force to fight Haitian gangs.
The United States asked him earlier this week to speed up a political transition as armed gangs seek to oust him.
Jimmy Cherizier, alias “Barbecue”, the most powerful gang leader in Port-au-Prince who controls a good half of the city with thousands of men in his service, called at the end of February for the overthrow of the prime minister and president by interim Ariel Henry.
“If Ariel Henry does not resign, if the international community continues to support him, we are heading straight towards a civil war which will lead to genocide
,” he declared recently during a press interview.